Economists — think tank or academic research paper?

[Anonymous]

I tend to prefer think tank type research but my workplace mostly values (or so it seems) academic research with sophisticated modeling, and very narrow / specific issue-focused…. How can I persuade my team in the perhaps greater value of comprehensive research looking into a bigger picture and applying analysis without modeling….

[Anonymous]

I'm an economist who also thinks think tank analysis often does more to help on policy issues than academic papers. But this is strongly dependent on what the topic is. What is the topic you are thinking of?

[Anonymous]

Both are often completely detached from reality, and often don't consider basic things like "how would this work?" or "is this politically feasible at all?"

[Anonymous]

In academia we strongly look down on think tank research. If you can't trust the methods, you can't trust the conclusions - so what good is it?

[Anonymous]

Who is your audience? What is the goal of your research/writing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In academia we strongly look down on think tank research. If you can't trust the methods, you can't trust the conclusions - so what good is it?

The non-economists that I work with absolutely hate academic economic research, because they can't understand the methods, and therefore don't trust the conclusions. It doesn't help that academic economists think that there's no point in trying to explain their research in non-jargon terms, and generally condescend to non-academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In academia we strongly look down on think tank research. If you can't trust the methods, you can't trust the conclusions - so what good is it?

Think tank research generally is better at directly addressing the policy under consideration. This is partially due to publication timelines.

[Anonymous]

If you want to write policy-focused research, pick a very specific topic (e.g., the effect of a specific policy on a specific outcome) and go as far as you can in describing relevant institutional details and descriptive statistics that speak to the apparent effects of the policy. Careful work along these lines is always valued, in government, academia, and elsewhere, and good policies papers can even lead to more "formal" academic work on the same topic.

Beyond that, good policy work is incredibly valuable, but it's not a substitute for academic research, nor could it be. There are lots of PhD researchers who can produce both good academic work and good policy work, e.g., at government agencies. If your employer values academic work, you may not get far with policy research only.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all replies.

To the last poster, the issue is the policy I am looking at is grand. Thanks a million for the advice, especially the first part of your post is exactly what I was looking for…

And the second part is also helpful for me to frame my thinking… I think 90% of papers this agency produces targets academic audience…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to write policy-focused research, pick a very specific topic (e.g., the effect of a specific policy on a specific outcome) and go as far as you can in describing relevant institutional details and descriptive statistics that speak to the apparent effects of the policy. Careful work along these lines is always valued, in government, academia, and elsewhere, and good policies papers can even lead to more "formal" academic work on the same topic.

Beyond that, good policy work is incredibly valuable, but it's not a substitute for academic research, nor could it be. There are lots of PhD researchers who can produce both good academic work and good policy work, e.g., at government agencies. If your employer values academic work, you may not get far with policy research only.

Seriously, I am going to frame this.