I see Policy Design and Implementation as a neglected cause area for Effective Altruism.
Effective policy changes in developed countries could unleash many trillions of dollars in economic potential. This is especially true in the cases of immigration reform and land use policy. While political concerns are often cited as obstacles to progress on these issues, it’s still the case that there’s not enough investment in time or money to finding creative solutions to these obstacles, especially considering the size of the trillion dollar bill we’re leaving lying on the sidewalk.
In developing countries, economic policy changes might have an even higher impact. We don’t have a good sense of what factors allow countries to climb the income ladder yet, but it seems clear that policy and governance have quite a lot to do with it! There are a few exciting ideas in this space, charter cities among them.
Policy design and implementation, as a cause area, is likely to be high-risk high-reward. Unlike an intervention like GiveDirectly with a well-defined outcome, policy change has high error bars around the expected effect size. That fits in well with Open Philanthropy’s model of hits-based giving—throw a lot of interventions against the wall and see what sticks.
Policy design and implementation is also a complement to many of effective altruism’s other important cause areas. When we think of safeguarding the long-term future, that includes effective policy around AI governance and biosecurity as well as nuclear policy. The single most effective change we could make in the animal welfare space would plausibly be a coordinated global policy outlawing battery cages.
Historically, my read is that policy change has been seen as less tractable than other kinds of interventions. However, with the money and talent that currently exists within the effective altruism movement, there’s a good case to be made that policy change should be revisited. We should be thinking about how to conduct and share effective policy research, communicate the results of that research broadly, and get our people into government agencies and even legislatures.
Charter cities excite me as well: Shenzen in 1980 had 50,000 inhabitants when it became a special economic zone. Today, Shenzen is a global tech powerhouse with 20 million citizens.
As for land use policy, I feel the cost of the problem myself by living in Paris, one of the most expensive cities in the world. A denser Paris would lower my rent and spare me a 1-hour bus ride every time I go out for a drink ;)
[epistemic status: strong opinion]
I see Policy Design and Implementation as a neglected cause area for Effective Altruism.
Effective policy changes in developed countries could unleash many trillions of dollars in economic potential. This is especially true in the cases of immigration reform and land use policy. While political concerns are often cited as obstacles to progress on these issues, it’s still the case that there’s not enough investment in time or money to finding creative solutions to these obstacles, especially considering the size of the trillion dollar bill we’re leaving lying on the sidewalk.
In developing countries, economic policy changes might have an even higher impact. We don’t have a good sense of what factors allow countries to climb the income ladder yet, but it seems clear that policy and governance have quite a lot to do with it! There are a few exciting ideas in this space, charter cities among them.
Policy design and implementation, as a cause area, is likely to be high-risk high-reward. Unlike an intervention like GiveDirectly with a well-defined outcome, policy change has high error bars around the expected effect size. That fits in well with Open Philanthropy’s model of hits-based giving—throw a lot of interventions against the wall and see what sticks.
Policy design and implementation is also a complement to many of effective altruism’s other important cause areas. When we think of safeguarding the long-term future, that includes effective policy around AI governance and biosecurity as well as nuclear policy. The single most effective change we could make in the animal welfare space would plausibly be a coordinated global policy outlawing battery cages.
Historically, my read is that policy change has been seen as less tractable than other kinds of interventions. However, with the money and talent that currently exists within the effective altruism movement, there’s a good case to be made that policy change should be revisited. We should be thinking about how to conduct and share effective policy research, communicate the results of that research broadly, and get our people into government agencies and even legislatures.
Thank you so much for the well-thought answer!
Charter cities excite me as well: Shenzen in 1980 had 50,000 inhabitants when it became a special economic zone. Today, Shenzen is a global tech powerhouse with 20 million citizens.
As for land use policy, I feel the cost of the problem myself by living in Paris, one of the most expensive cities in the world. A denser Paris would lower my rent and spare me a 1-hour bus ride every time I go out for a drink ;)