Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off
Policy makers bemoan the lack of research findings to guide urgent decisions, whereas researchers' professional code puts rigor first. This article argues that provisional assessments, produced early in the research cycle, can bridge the gap....
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26089560/providing-policy-makers-timely-advice-timeliness-rigor-trade-off http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24153 |
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okr-10986-241532021-04-23T14:04:19Z Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off Bell, Clive Squire, Lyn BASIC EDUCATION RESEARCH COMMUNITY TIME RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS NATURAL SCIENCES INFORMATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES RESEARCH RESULTS HEALTH INSURANCE PUBLIC SERVICES CAREER PAPERS POLICY DISCUSSIONS RESEARCHER CONTENT PUBLICATIONS EXPERIMENTATION PROFESSOR SOCIAL PROGRAMS MEASURES PROBABILITIES HIGH SCHOOLS OPEN ACCESS KNOWLEDGE PUBLIC POLICY DATA PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS TECHNIQUES SPACE EXPERIMENTS PROBABILITY DEMOCRACY OBSERVATION ARTICLES SCHOLARS CASES POLICY-MAKING PROCESS SCIENCES LEARNING RESEARCH SOCIAL SECURITY PUBLIC SPHERE STANDARDS PRIMARY SCHOOL POLICY DECISIONS ARTICLE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IMPROVEMENT GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS RESPECT METHODS LARGE POPULATION PROGRESS DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH INTERVIEWS PUBLIC OPINION WORKERS RESEARCH POLICY POLICIES DESCRIPTIONS EXPLORATION SCIENCE SCHOOLS VALIDITY POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER ORDERING POLICY MAKERS POLICY DIALOGUE RESEARCHERS LITERATURE EXPENDITURES SIZE QUALITY CONTROL RESEARCH PROJECTS POLICY EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION CASE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT RESEARCH OUTPUT EVALUATION INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE MIDWIVES RESEARCH FINDINGS POPULATION SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY PRACTITIONERS STANDARD POLICY ANALYST COMMUNICATION ESTIMATES POLICY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SCHOOL ACADEMIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY Policy makers bemoan the lack of research findings to guide urgent decisions, whereas researchers' professional code puts rigor first. This article argues that provisional assessments, produced early in the research cycle, can bridge the gap. Numerous case studies point to the importance of early interaction with policy makers and the delivery of brief, policy-focused papers; but preliminary analyses may be flawed and so increase the chances of a wrong decision. This article demonstrates analytically that a preliminary assessment, supported by the offer of more refined research, provides an option that is superior, on average, to the current practice of submitting a final report at the end of the research cycle. Where practical implementation is concerned, it calls for donor-funded subsidies to promote the use of provisional assessments and for a rapid, independent, professional review process to ensure their quality. While the research-policy exchange in developing countries is a complex, context-specific phenomenon, the proposal offered here holds out some promise of improving decisions in the public sphere under a wide range of circumstances. 2016-04-26T16:49:07Z 2016-04-26T16:49:07Z 2016-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26089560/providing-policy-makers-timely-advice-timeliness-rigor-trade-off http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24153 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7610 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
BASIC EDUCATION RESEARCH COMMUNITY TIME RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS NATURAL SCIENCES INFORMATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES RESEARCH RESULTS HEALTH INSURANCE PUBLIC SERVICES CAREER PAPERS POLICY DISCUSSIONS RESEARCHER CONTENT PUBLICATIONS EXPERIMENTATION PROFESSOR SOCIAL PROGRAMS MEASURES PROBABILITIES HIGH SCHOOLS OPEN ACCESS KNOWLEDGE PUBLIC POLICY DATA PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS TECHNIQUES SPACE EXPERIMENTS PROBABILITY DEMOCRACY OBSERVATION ARTICLES SCHOLARS CASES POLICY-MAKING PROCESS SCIENCES LEARNING RESEARCH SOCIAL SECURITY PUBLIC SPHERE STANDARDS PRIMARY SCHOOL POLICY DECISIONS ARTICLE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IMPROVEMENT GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS RESPECT METHODS LARGE POPULATION PROGRESS DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH INTERVIEWS PUBLIC OPINION WORKERS RESEARCH POLICY POLICIES DESCRIPTIONS EXPLORATION SCIENCE SCHOOLS VALIDITY POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER ORDERING POLICY MAKERS POLICY DIALOGUE RESEARCHERS LITERATURE EXPENDITURES SIZE QUALITY CONTROL RESEARCH PROJECTS POLICY EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION CASE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT RESEARCH OUTPUT EVALUATION INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE MIDWIVES RESEARCH FINDINGS POPULATION SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY PRACTITIONERS STANDARD POLICY ANALYST COMMUNICATION ESTIMATES POLICY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SCHOOL ACADEMIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY |
| spellingShingle |
BASIC EDUCATION RESEARCH COMMUNITY TIME RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS NATURAL SCIENCES INFORMATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES RESEARCH RESULTS HEALTH INSURANCE PUBLIC SERVICES CAREER PAPERS POLICY DISCUSSIONS RESEARCHER CONTENT PUBLICATIONS EXPERIMENTATION PROFESSOR SOCIAL PROGRAMS MEASURES PROBABILITIES HIGH SCHOOLS OPEN ACCESS KNOWLEDGE PUBLIC POLICY DATA PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS TECHNIQUES SPACE EXPERIMENTS PROBABILITY DEMOCRACY OBSERVATION ARTICLES SCHOLARS CASES POLICY-MAKING PROCESS SCIENCES LEARNING RESEARCH SOCIAL SECURITY PUBLIC SPHERE STANDARDS PRIMARY SCHOOL POLICY DECISIONS ARTICLE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IMPROVEMENT GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS RESPECT METHODS LARGE POPULATION PROGRESS DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH INTERVIEWS PUBLIC OPINION WORKERS RESEARCH POLICY POLICIES DESCRIPTIONS EXPLORATION SCIENCE SCHOOLS VALIDITY POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER ORDERING POLICY MAKERS POLICY DIALOGUE RESEARCHERS LITERATURE EXPENDITURES SIZE QUALITY CONTROL RESEARCH PROJECTS POLICY EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION CASE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT RESEARCH OUTPUT EVALUATION INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE MIDWIVES RESEARCH FINDINGS POPULATION SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY PRACTITIONERS STANDARD POLICY ANALYST COMMUNICATION ESTIMATES POLICY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SCHOOL ACADEMIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY Bell, Clive Squire, Lyn Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7610 |
| description |
Policy makers bemoan the lack of
research findings to guide urgent decisions, whereas
researchers' professional code puts rigor first. This
article argues that provisional assessments, produced early
in the research cycle, can bridge the gap. Numerous case
studies point to the importance of early interaction with
policy makers and the delivery of brief, policy-focused
papers; but preliminary analyses may be flawed and so
increase the chances of a wrong decision. This article
demonstrates analytically that a preliminary assessment,
supported by the offer of more refined research, provides an
option that is superior, on average, to the current practice
of submitting a final report at the end of the research
cycle. Where practical implementation is concerned, it calls
for donor-funded subsidies to promote the use of provisional
assessments and for a rapid, independent, professional
review process to ensure their quality. While the
research-policy exchange in developing countries is a
complex, context-specific phenomenon, the proposal offered
here holds out some promise of improving decisions in the
public sphere under a wide range of circumstances. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Bell, Clive Squire, Lyn |
| author_facet |
Bell, Clive Squire, Lyn |
| author_sort |
Bell, Clive |
| title |
Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off |
| title_short |
Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off |
| title_full |
Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off |
| title_fullStr |
Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Providing Policy Makers with Timely Advice : The Timeliness-Rigor Trade-off |
| title_sort |
providing policy makers with timely advice : the timeliness-rigor trade-off |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26089560/providing-policy-makers-timely-advice-timeliness-rigor-trade-off http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24153 |
| _version_ |
1764455787945525248 |