Gianluca Benigno's picture
Affiliation: 
London School of Economics
Credentials: 
Associate Professor in Economics

Voting history

Are academic economists ‘in touch’ with voters and politicians?

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Question 6: Economists did not explain the reasons for this consensus in sufficiently clear language.

Do you agree this was an important reason for a majority of UK voters going against the near unanimous advice of the economics profession?

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Answer:
Agree
Confidence level:
Confident

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Question 4: Voters did not believe the economic arguments put forward (for example, because they thought the arguments put forward by macroeconomists with dissenting views made more sense or because voters have little faith in economists in general).

Do you agree that this was an important reason for a majority of UK voters going against the near unanimous advice of the economics profession?

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Answer:
Agree
Confidence level:
Confident

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Question 3: Voters chose to leave the EU for non-economic reasons.

Do you agree that this was an important reason for a majority of UK voters going against the near unanimous advice of the economics profession?

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Answer:
Agree
Confidence level:
Confident

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Question 2: What do you think is the most likely reason that a majority of UK voters went against the near unanimous advice of the economics profession?

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Answer:
A. Non-economic reasons more important
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
one issue that in my opinion has been important is the one of sovereignty along with immigration that has in the public opinion point of view also non-economic aspects that might be of more relevance than economic ones. Regarding the economic reasons, it is hard to make claims about long-run economic effects of policy choices because institutional and structural changes can influence the economic performance. Also the global financial crisis has created scepticism on the ability of the economic profession to interpret what is going on.

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Question 1: Do you agree that the economics profession needs an institutional change that promotes the ability to communicate more effectively with policy-makers and the public at large and to make clear when economists have a united view; and do you agree that we need to introduce leadership to help achieve this improvement through coordinated efforts?

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Answer:
Neither agree nor disagree
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
In my opinion, in general it is difficult to have a unified view especially in the field of macroeconomics. I do believe that there is a difficulty in communicating with the public at large more than with policy-makers. introducing leadership could help but also credibility of communication matters. one important component of credibility is the extent to which various views are correct or not and this is difficult to verify ex-post.

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