The dismal science?: Is economics influential enough in government decision making?

Economics as a discipline is fundamentally about ways to allocate scarce resources. As scarcity of resource is a perennial issue in public policy, this means that economics has much to offer to those responsible for resource allocation both at the official and the political level.

Governments are typically either spending the public's money or are asking (or forcing) citizens and businesses to spend their own time and money in ways deemed to serve the public good. In a democratic society, it is essential that such decisions are transparent and consistent and explained in ways that enable Governments to be held to account.

It is therefore my contention that economists, whether or not you regard them as proper scientists, and whether or not you regard them as dismal, are true friends of good government and democracy.