Communicating Economic Evidence: Insights from Behavioural and Applied Economics

Background

As part of the 6th International Conference on Business and Policy Studies, this symposium focuses on how economic evidence is communicated and how that shapes understanding, beliefs, and decisions. Economic evidence reaches the public through policy announcements, news reports and educational settings. Its interpretation depends on how information is selected and presented, as well as on audiences’ prior beliefs, knowledge and incentives. These questions connect directly to microeconomics, particularly information economics and behavioural economics. They also motivate applied research on belief formation, expectations and individual decisions. Central bank announcements, economic news and classroom explanations provide settings in which to examine these processes. A central challenge is to make findings accessible while retaining the uncertainty and limits of the underlying analysis. This symposium takes the communication of economic evidence as an economic research question, connecting public understanding with the decisions that information is intended to support.

Goal/Rationale

The symposium will examine how the content, format and source of economic information shape understanding, beliefs and decisions. It will bring together applied economic research and economics education to discuss which communication approaches work, for whom and under what conditions. Contributions may examine how people respond to numerical information, uncertainty, competing interpretations or messages from institutions and the media.

A particular aim is to distinguish evidence that a message attracts attention from evidence that it improves understanding or changes behaviour. Discussion will consider experimental, quasi-experimental and observational approaches, with attention to measurement, identification and the limits of causal interpretation. The symposium will also consider how data visualisation and AI-assisted communication can be evaluated using economic outcomes and measures of comprehension. Participants will exchange findings and research designs, identify testable questions and consider how economic evidence can be communicated accurately to audiences with different informational needs.

Scope

We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions grounded in microeconomics, behavioural economics, information economics and applied economic research. Topics include economic literacy and financial decisions; the effects of central bank communication on expectations; media reporting and economic beliefs; communication of policy evaluations; and the presentation of risk, uncertainty and distributional effects. Contributions on economics education, data visualisation, misinformation or AI-assisted communication should identify a clear economic question and explain the relevant mechanism or outcome.