Abstrakt
The talk surveys prominent prior research in empirical legal studies and discusses potential pitfalls of policy-makers who may rely on these and similar studies. When policy-makers are not data literate, a misinterpretation of research results or strategic choice of research results to justify certain policies can create tremendous costs for society.
This problem is exacerbated because policy measures are sticky. I call for policy-makers to ensure data literacy when developing policy proposals.