Policy Development with Costly Consideration

• In Event: Formal Models of Policymaking and Elections

Abstract

Changing a status quo policy requires (1) the development of a policy alternative and (2) a vote or choice for the alternative over retaining the status quo policy. In this paper, I consider a formal model of policymaking in which the decision-maker does not automatically consider every developed policy proposal. Instead, a policy developer must expend resources to increase the likelihood of consideration. I study how developers allocate resources between generating high-quality proposals and costly consideration. I discuss an application to congressional policymaking and the allocation of committee resources between policy development and costly consideration.

Author

• Roel Bos, Princeton University