Data

Despite conventional wisdom, behavioral evidence repeatedly suggests that most Americans are not avid consumers of political news. Instead, they are spending an astounding amount of time engaging with entertainment media. It is time to face the extent to which politics and non-political media consumption are closely intertwined. The role of ‘The Apprentice’ in the rise of President Trump is one such example. Going forward, politicians need to rewrite the standard political playbook to reach an inattentive public. Read More

Minimizing the personal and economic costs of a global pandemic requires the coordination of federal, state and local governments. When it comes to implementing stay-at-home orders with the simultaneous and competing goals of minimizing community spread and business dislocation, our data-driven analysis demonstrates the value of public policy discretion at the state and local level. Read More

Elections indicate who wins, but not why. Public opinion polling, done right, remains the best way of obtaining citizens’ opinions. While some suggest two consecutive polling “fails” in presidential elections destroy trust in the process, policy makers in a representative democracy should pause before branding all polling data with the same mark. Read More