Effective accountability may require that officeholders be able to justify their policy choices to their constituents. We develop a game-theoretic model of policy justification in the context of a principal-agent relationship and analyze the equilibrium effects of justification as a strategic choice. Most notably, we show that the effect of justification on the incumbent's policy choice incentives is non-monotonic (U-shaped) in the leeway afforded to justification, reflecting the different ratios of false positives and false negatives that it creates.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Heo et al. (2024) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: