It’s time to make ourselves public policy guinea pigs

The lesson doesn’t apply only to coronavirus vaccines or homelessness. Randomized experiments can and should help guide public policy at both the local and national levels. Whether the goal is reducing carbon emissions or minimizing poverty, there are dozens of potential ways to tackle the problem: cash transfers, tax incentives, subsidies, mandates, you name it. Rather than just voting to try one to see if it reduces emissions or poverty, why not test a few possible approaches in randomly selected locations to see which reduces emissions or poverty the most. Then, roll out the most effective solution more widely.