Academic Rhetoric in the Policy Arena: The Case of Capital Gains Taxation

We investigate possible explanations for the rhetorical gap that divides producers and influential consumers of economic knowledge, academic economists and policymakers, respectively. We argue that economics lacks a developed theory of how academic research influences political decision making. This theoretical lacuna and the nature of the rhetorical gap have consequences for the effectiveness of academic ideas. We sketch three models, and argue for a process analysis as superior to conventional accounts. The debate on taxation of capital gains is our case study.