Those in Wellington might wish to join us on Monday night for the launch of Jason Krupp's report on regulatory reform in mining.
Jason shows that we're well inside the production-possibilities frontier: we could get both more mining and better environmental outcomes with a few regulatory changes.
Which goes on about potential solutions to alcohol fuelled violence. I'd be interested in your take on this report. This excerpt from it did raise a red flag in my mind (quoting from the introduction):
"The most authoritative review of alcohol-related harm and the measures to reduce it is Alcohol: No ordinary commodity (Babor et al., 2010). The book uses an expert consensus model with the author panel representing a collection of the leading international researchers in the field. The author group then meets over the course of the project and produces a consensus version of each chapter. The main problem with this method is that it relies on the final version reflecting a consensus opinion and there is no formal documentation of the process or feedback behind the final document. Despite this, the book is authored by the leading researchers in the field, and it accurately reflects the major issues in alcohol supply and demand."
I'm not sure about you, but as soon as someone is quoting an 'expert panel' as the most authoritative source of wisdom, I'm not at all clear that the panel is in any way actually fully informed, impartially selected, unbiased by funding source or other agenda, or using evidence in any way shape or form in producing these recommendations.
This was referred to in the news today:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ndlerf.gov.au/publications/monographs/monograph-57
Which goes on about potential solutions to alcohol fuelled violence. I'd be interested in your take on this report. This excerpt from it did raise a red flag in my mind (quoting from the introduction):
"The most authoritative review of alcohol-related harm and the measures to reduce it is Alcohol: No ordinary commodity (Babor et al., 2010). The book uses an expert consensus model with the author panel representing a collection of the leading international researchers in the field. The author group then meets
over the course of the project and produces a consensus version of each chapter. The main problem with this method is that it relies on the final version reflecting a consensus opinion and there is no formal documentation of the process or feedback behind the final document. Despite this, the book is authored by the leading researchers in the field, and it accurately reflects the major issues in alcohol supply and demand."
I'm not sure about you, but as soon as someone is quoting an 'expert panel' as the most authoritative source of wisdom, I'm not at all clear that the panel is in any way actually fully informed, impartially selected, unbiased by funding source or other agenda, or using evidence in any way shape or form in producing these recommendations.