Expertise for emerging technology: Information, prestige, and the Office of Technology Assessment

Abstract

Policy makers often struggle to adapt and respond to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with new and emerging technologies. In such situations decision makers often widen their search for information and acquire more expertise in order to better define complex problems and to understand the potential consequences of proposed alternatives. I argue that acquiring information also carries social and symbolic value: having reports and other kinds of information provided to you signals that you are a policy maker important and influential enough to keep informed. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) provided the US Congress with nonpartisan reports on technology-related issues from 1972 until 1995 when its funding was zeroed out. Using data on all OTA reports published from 1974 to 1995, I find evidence that, while almost every committee requested at least one report, the reports largely were concentrated among a few committees in each chamber. The committees more likely to request reports also tended to be lower in prestige among members; acquiring OTA reports thus helped raise the committee leaders' profile on science and technology-related issues but was not directly related to the surrounding issue environment or immediate legislative efforts. OTA reports also were concentrated on a relatively small number of policy issues, which further suggests inequalities in the dynamics of expertise in policy making.