The Experts below are selected from a list of 7377 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Matthew E. Taylor - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Theoretically-grounded Policy Advice from multiple teachers in reinforcement learning settings with applications to negative transfer
IJCAI International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2016Co-Authors: Yusen Zhan, Haitham Bou Ammar, Matthew E. TaylorAbstract:Policy Advice is a transfer learning method where a student agent is able to learn faster via Advice from a teacher. However, both this and other reinforcement learning transfer methods have little theoretical analysis. This paper formally defines a setting where multiple teacher agents can provide Advice to a student and introduces an algorithm to leverage both autonomous exploration and teacher's Advice. Our regret bounds justify the intuition that good teachers help while bad teachers hurt. Using our formalization, we are also able to quantify, for the first time, when negative transfer can occur within such a reinforcement learning setting.
Arnost Veselý - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Externalization of Policy Advice: Theory, methodology and evidence ☆
Policy and Society, 2020Co-Authors: Arnost VeselýAbstract:Abstract This paper examines to what extent advisory activities previously performed inside the government have been relocated to places outside of government. Although this process, labelled as externalization of Policy Advice, is widely taken as a universal trend, here it is shown that empirical findings suggest a more complicated picture. The level of externalization differs across Policy domains, countries and over time. There are also different meanings of externalization and it has both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. In this article it is argued that the provision of Policy Advice can be conceptualized in terms of two competing processes: externalization and filling-in. The strength of these processes depends upon a wide range of factors. An overview of the empirical findings on externalization is provided and the factors assumed to be conducive to externalization are outlined. The article concludes with implications for further research, arguing that empirical research should be more theory-driven and enhanced by the inclusion of other research designs and methods.
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An Analysis of Expenses for the Outsourcing of Policy Advice on the Level of the Ministries of the Czech Republic
2020Co-Authors: Arnost Veselý, František Ochrana, Stanislav KlazarAbstract:The study is a contribution to the theoretical/empirical analysis of the problem of outsourcing of Policy Advice in the public administration. It provides the typologies of expenses for Policy Advice in the public administration and examines the relationship between internal and external expenses on an example of the ministries of the Czech Republic for the period from 2001 to 2011. It shows that extreme changes in the form of increases in expenses for outsourcing arise when an amendment to the Act on Public Contracts is prepared. We explain the problem on the basis of changes in the behaviour of the clients as a result of expected changes to the contracting conditions. The study shows that several factors influence the amount of expenses for the outsourcing of Policy Advice. The "large" ministries have relatively fewer expenses for the outsourcing of Policy Advice than "small" ministries. Ministries that have their own workplaces available in their structures (i.e. in the form of their own scientific research workplaces) have lower than average expenses for the outsourcing of Policy Advice. Ministries with higher average wages are ministries with a relatively large number of managers in relation to the number of analysts, and thus they implement a higher degree of external services (measured as a share of the wage expenses).
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Policy Advice as Policy work: a conceptual framework for multi-level analysis
Policy Sciences, 2017Co-Authors: Arnost VeselýAbstract:This article argues that Policy Advice can be understood as a special kind of “Policy work” that depends upon a diverse set of factors operating at different levels. The basic aim of the article is to disentangle this multi-level and multifaceted phenomenon into a conceptual framework that can be used for empirical analysis and theory building. In that framework, Policy Advice is conceptualized as a never-ending interaction among various actors in a specific institutional context, through which routines and norms are both reproduced and abolished. First, it is explained why Policy Advice is most fruitfully understood as a special kind of Policy work, and then how it relates to other Policy work activities. Second, problems with single-level approaches are discussed and the need for a multi-level approach is explained. Third, a multi-level conceptual framework is formulated and described. Fourth, some possible applications of the framework are illustrated with examples from current empirical research. The article concludes with implications for research and theory building.
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externalization of Policy Advice theory methodology and evidence
Policy and Society, 2013Co-Authors: Arnost VeselýAbstract:Abstract This paper examines to what extent advisory activities previously performed inside the government have been relocated to places outside of government. Although this process, labelled as externalization of Policy Advice, is widely taken as a universal trend, here it is shown that empirical findings suggest a more complicated picture. The level of externalization differs across Policy domains, countries and over time. There are also different meanings of externalization and it has both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. In this article it is argued that the provision of Policy Advice can be conceptualized in terms of two competing processes: externalization and filling-in. The strength of these processes depends upon a wide range of factors. An overview of the empirical findings on externalization is provided and the factors assumed to be conducive to externalization are outlined. The article concludes with implications for further research, arguing that empirical research should be more theory-driven and enhanced by the inclusion of other research designs and methods.
Yusen Zhan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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IJCAI - Theoretically-grounded Policy Advice from multiple teachers in reinforcement learning settings with applications to negative transfer
2016Co-Authors: Yusen Zhan, Haitham Bou Ammar, Matthew D. TaylorAbstract:Policy Advice is a transfer learning method where a student agent is able to learn faster via Advice from a teacher. However, both this and other reinforcement learning transfer methods have little theoretical analysis. This paper formally defines a setting where multiple teacher agents can provide Advice to a student and introduces an algorithm to leverage both autonomous exploration and teacher's Advice. Our regret bounds justify the intuition that good teachers help while bad teachers hurt. Using our formalization, we are also able to quantify, for the first time, when negative transfer can occur within such a reinforcement learning setting.
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Theoretically-grounded Policy Advice from multiple teachers in reinforcement learning settings with applications to negative transfer
IJCAI International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2016Co-Authors: Yusen Zhan, Haitham Bou Ammar, Matthew E. TaylorAbstract:Policy Advice is a transfer learning method where a student agent is able to learn faster via Advice from a teacher. However, both this and other reinforcement learning transfer methods have little theoretical analysis. This paper formally defines a setting where multiple teacher agents can provide Advice to a student and introduces an algorithm to leverage both autonomous exploration and teacher's Advice. Our regret bounds justify the intuition that good teachers help while bad teachers hurt. Using our formalization, we are also able to quantify, for the first time, when negative transfer can occur within such a reinforcement learning setting.
Armin Grunwald - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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technology assessment and Policy Advice in the field of sustainable development
2017Co-Authors: Armin GrunwaldAbstract:Sustainable development as a societal vision meets with correspondingly broad approval across all societal groups and political positions, nationally and internationally. The number of nations which have signed and ratified the documents of Rio 1992 and the corresponding follow-up papers and the numerous local or regional activities are impressive. However, the pathway to a more sustainable society needs high effort. Scientific analysis and Policy Advice is required for monitoring and assessing developments and trends relevant to sustainability as well as for designing political instruments, measures and strategies for sustainability governance. In particular, strategies have to be developed to deal constructively with the enormous uncertainties involved. Therefore, sustainability has become a major issue in technology assessment giving scientific Advice to political bodies. In this Chapter I will briefly describe the main motivations and origins of technology assessment and its relations with sustainable development as well. As an institutional case of Policy Advice, the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag will be introduced, followed by the presentation of some of its reports on different issues such as energy, tourism, and access to information.
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techno visionary sciences challenges to Policy Advice
Science Technology & Innovation Studies, 2013Co-Authors: Armin GrunwaldAbstract:Scientific Policy Advice on issues of science and technology looks back to a tradition of more than 50 years. Technology assessment (TA) has been developed since the 1960s, frequently in relation to or on behalf of political institutions such as parliaments and governments. In general, science and technology studies (STS) appear to be (or, at least, to have been until quite recently) more academic and more distant to institutionalised political decision processes in a strict sense (the ‘political system’). Seen against this background, one main thesis of this paper is that the rise of new techno-visionary sciences, such as nanotechnology, significantly contributed to a process of convergence between STS and TA. The reason for this can be located in the particular relevance and virulence of the ‘Collingridge dilemma’ for these sciences. Due to the high uncertainties with respect to the knowledge about impacts of the related technologies, TA has to look for other than empirical or logical arguments to support ‘upstream’ technology impact analyses – and can find them partially in theory-based work in STS, for example in the context of the debate on the co-evolution of technology and society. STS practitioners, in turn, see options and the need for ‘going public’ in a new way (and at an early stage of development), now increasingly including the institutionalised political domain. Equipped with their refined analytic, interpretative and ethnographic capacities, STS are moving further into often unfamiliar Policy terrain which has its own logic and distinct set of rules. The paper analyses and reflects on ongoing shifts in the ‘landscape’ of scientific Policy Advice, focusing on the rise of techno-visionary sciences and converging technologies. Another aim of the paper is to orientate STS and TA toward mutual learning processes and intensified cooperation, based on existing experience in both fields.
Arthur C Petersen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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differences in views of experts about their role in particulate matter Policy Advice empirical evidence from an international expert consultation
Environmental Science & Policy, 2016Co-Authors: Pita Spruijt, Anne B Knol, Arthur C Petersen, Erik LebretAbstract:There is ample scientific evidence of adverse health effects of air pollution at exposure levels that are common among the general population. Some points of uncertainty remain, however. Several theories exist regarding the various roles that experts may play when they offer Policy Advice on uncertain issues such as particulate matter (PM). Roles may vary according to e.g. the views of the expert on the science-Policy interface or the extent to which she/he involves stakeholders. Empirical underpinning of these theories, however, does not exist. We therefore conducted a consultation with experts on the following research question: What are PM experts’ views on their roles when providing Policy Advice? Q methodology was used to empirically test theoretical notions concerning the existence of differences in views on expert roles. Experts were selected based on a structured nominee process. In total, 31 international PM experts participated. Responses were examined via Principal Component Analysis, and for the open-ended questions, we used Atlas.ti software. Four different expert roles were identified among the participating experts. Main differences were found with respect to views on the need for precautionary measures and on the experts positioning within the science-Policy interface. There was consensus on certain issues such as the need for transparency, general disagreement with current policies and general agreement on key scientific issues. This empirical study shows that while most PM experts consider their views on the risks of PM to be in line with those of their colleagues, four distinct expert roles were observed. This provides support for thus far largely theoretical debates on the existence of different roles of experts when they provide Policy Advice.
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different roles of electromagnetic field experts when giving Policy Advice an expert consultation
Environmental Health, 2015Co-Authors: Pita Spruijt, Anne B Knol, Arthur C Petersen, Erik LebretAbstract:BACKGROUND: The overall evidence for adverse health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) at levels of exposure normally experienced by the public is generally considered weak. However, whether long-term health effects arise remains uncertain and scientific Policy Advice is therefore given against a background of uncertainty. Several theories exist about different roles that experts may take when they provide Advice on complex issues such as EMF. To provide empirical evidence for these theories, we conducted an expert consultation with as main research question: What are the different roles of EMF experts when they provide Policy Advice? METHODS: Q methodology was used to empirically test theoretical notions on the existence and determinants of different expert roles and to analyze which roles actually play out in the domain of EMF. Experts were selected based on a structured nominee process. In total 32 international EMF experts participated. Responses were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis and for the open questions we used Atlas.ti. RESULTS: Four expert roles were found. Most striking differences between the four roles are whether experts consider current EMF policies adequate or not, whether additional -precautionary- measures are needed, and how experts view their position vis-a-vis Policymakers and/or other stakeholders. CONCLUSION: This empirical study provides support for the so far mainly theoretical debate about the existence of different roles of experts when they give Policy Advice. The experts' assessment of the degree of uncertainty of the issue turned out to be highly associated with their role. We argue that part of the controversy that exists in the debate regarding scientific Policy Advice on EMF is about different values and roles.
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climate simulation uncertainty and Policy Advice the case of the ipcc
In: Gramelsberger G and Feichter J (eds.) Climate Change and Policy: The Calculability of Climate Change and the Challenge of Uncertainty. (pp. 91-111, 2011Co-Authors: Arthur C PetersenAbstract:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a body of the United Nations established in 1988 which has the responsibility to provide Policy-relevant assessments of knowledge pertaining to climate change. While the IPCC does not advise on which climate policies should be agreed upon by the world’s nations, it does provide succinct Summaries for Policymakers (SPMs) on the state of knowledge on the causes and effects of human-induced climate change, on mitigation of the causes and on adaptation to the effects. If we are interested in how climate-simulation uncertainty is dealt with in Policy Advice, the IPCC is a prime location for study.
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Climate Simulation, Uncertainty, and Policy Advice – The Case of the IPCC
Climate Change and Policy, 2011Co-Authors: Arthur C PetersenAbstract:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a body of the United Nations established in 1988 which has the responsibility to provide Policy-relevant assessments of knowledge pertaining to climate change. While the IPCC does not advise on which climate policies should be agreed upon by the world’s nations, it does provide succinct Summaries for Policymakers (SPMs) on the state of knowledge on the causes and effects of human-induced climate change, on mitigation of the causes and on adaptation to the effects. If we are interested in how climate-simulation uncertainty is dealt with in Policy Advice, the IPCC is a prime location for study.
