Following a Lead, Across Institutions

ProPublica, an investigative outfit in the United States, reports that a company producing tax-filing software has been active in trying to influence policy. The software company allegedly has used proxies to argue against a simpler system for filing taxes. Such a simplification would reduce the need for tax-filing software. It appears that the public relations firm working for the software maker had citizens reach out to lawmakers, with strikingly similar letters. Below is the story.

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If you are interested in policy, you may now well wonder whether any think tanks got involved. Here is where Find Policy comes in: type in the name of the software maker in the Public Policy search page, and you can see what think tanks tell us on this issue.

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Screenshot from Find Policy

A first glance suggests that think tanks across the spectrum were onto the issue. The New America Foundation highlighted corporate lobbying against simpler filing a few years ago, drawing on a local newspaper.

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Similarly, CATO and AEI highlighted the issue. 

It's a different political perspective, but they highlight that there are vested interests in keeping things complicated. As think tanks are becoming more transparent, it will be easier in the future to track contributions across think tanks in a single search as well. Faster and more focused, Find Policy makes it easy for you to see what the world's leading think tanks are up to. 

Go straight to the Public Policy search page here.

Find Policy Explained in a Video

A friend and colleague, Tigran Matosyan, put together a video explaining what Find Policy is about. 

Tigran put this together using a videoscribe service called Sparkol, which goes to show how much you can do with online tools nowadays. I love the simplicity, and how quick it is to explain things that way. So as we are updating the usability of Find Policy, we will develop more videos like that.

Tigran does extremely interesting research in Armenia, and you can find some of his work on Academia.edu. 

Searching Russian Research Organizations

We now have added Russia to our search pages. The search engine focuses on 13 leading research organizations. The page should be of particular interest in the current political context of the political events surrounding Ukraine and Crimea.

Screenshot of search for Crimea Ukraine Tatars. As usual, make your search as specific as possible. 

To select institutions, we received excellent input from a number of Russian and international policy researchers. The site is still in trial, as we (and hopefully you) test it. 

One limitation is that some institutions put little information online. The Levada Center, for example, widely cited in international media, has a sparse website, which is why we included its subsidiary, the Russia Votes project. Conversely, the Valdai Club, which serves as a kind of forum for experts, has a very active website and blog, and thus is particularly visible in the search results. To exclude the Valdai Center, use this trick. 

Our search is great at bringing out what is on the websites, and thus faster and more focused -- but of course, it's only as compelling as the content behind it. In case you want international perspectives on Crimea, try our Foreign Policy search page, here. 

The Russian search page is here. 

Carbon Tax: What Australian Think Tanks Say

If you are interested in issues around climate change, or policy in general, you may have heard of the idea of a carbon tax. The idea is to steer behavior to more sustainable energy usage. NPR's excellent Planet Money, in a bid for our attention, published the story under the headline Economists Have a One-Page Solution to Climate Change. The story is worth listening to, although people highlighted in the comments section that the reporters could have done more to cover what experience countries have had with the carbon tax. 

One country that has tried a carbon tax is Australia, where this tax became a major campaign issue. So what do Australian think tanks say on the carbon tax? 

A quick search returns a good range of results. In one box, Find Policy gives you an analysis on this issue from prominent Australian think tanks, a useful perspective from people familiar with the details of the policy on the ground. 

As always, if you have questions, let us know. If you find this useful, let others know. 

Click Any Tab Above for Immediate Access to Search

If you want immediate access to search, click any of the tabs above: Climate, Development, and so forth. There is also more specialized search under "More" with thematic search engines and search focusing on think tanks around the world, including Austrlia, Brazil, China, to just mention ABC. 

Why are you not landing on the blog, and not a particular search page when going to the homepage? Although Americans are about are the single largest group, they constitute less than a third of all users. 

While the Foreign Policy tab is currently most popular, many other search pages also draw traffic. Thus we keep the first page general, although this will mean another click for all users. Consider setting a bookmark. More about user numbers and geographic spread soon. 

Search of Australian Think Tanks Now Available

Our search page for Australian think tanks now is available. The search focuses on 11 policy research organizations, covering a range of topics from international affairs and foreign policy to the Australian economy and domestic policy. We selected prominent institutions that are reputable, active, and offer a diversity of viewpoints. Here is a search on what Australian think tanks have to say on the integration of the Australian Aid Agency (AusAID) into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

The results immediately take us to a relevant link, giving a good overview on the issue. The analysis primarily comes from one institution which is focused on development policy.

To test this further, we did another search. 

A good diversity of institutions, sharing their perspective on what goes on in Australia's neighborhood, from a more involved perspective than most think tanks in Europe or North America can bring. 

As the search engine returns good results it's time to make it available. We already received excellent advice from some people familiar with policy research in Australia, but are certainly happy to hear more suggestions. Let us know how it's working. The Australian search page is here.