Manifest for Evidence-based Politics. Guest Commentary by IHS Director Martin G. Kocher and WIFO Director Christoph Badelt

Markus Kiesenhofer

21.11.2019

Manifest for Evidence-based Politics

Guest Commentary by IHS Director Martin G. Kocher and WIFO Director Christoph Badelt

In a joint "Der Standard" guest commentary on 20 November 2019, IHS Director Martin G. Kocher and WIFO Director Christoph Badelt called for policy measures and instruments to be regularly subjected to a high-quality, constructive empirical review.

The last decades have brought us a revolution in social and economic research: Never before has empirical research been based on such extensive and high-quality data. Never before have there been such powerful empirical methods that, when used correctly, allow reliable and robust conclusions to be drawn, not only for academic research, but also for applied and policy-relevant research. In the private sector, data and knowledge have become the most important raw material in the service-oriented, modern economy of highly developed countries. They are the source of innovation, and a high degree of innovative strength ensures that economic and social structural change brings more potential than risk and that more new jobs – especially high-quality ones – are created than lost.

Please find the complete comment here (in German).