Do They Listen to the Experts? Exploring Experts’ Influence in Sustainability Policies

Despite the central role of knowledge in the public policy literature, studies on policy experts haven’t yet provided evidence about what makes an expert influential. Measuring the influence of experts, and the knowledge they contribute, remains a challenging task, particularly when it comes to identifying the factors that shape their impact. A growing literature on policy advice suggests that personal relationships and the presence of “trusted advisors” are crucial, as these connections foster trust and signal trustworthiness. In this study, we use a pre-registered survey experiment to examine how relational proximity to a policy maker shapes experts’ perceptions of their own policy impact. We also explore how this relationship is moderated by experts’ analytical capacity and the governance level at which they operate. Our sample includes experts working on sustainability policies at both local and European levels. Respondents are randomly assigned to a vignette depicting a hypothetical policy consultancy scenario, in which we experimentally manipulate whether the expert’s relational proximity to the policy maker is made explicit (treatment) or not (control). Data collection is currently ongoing, and we aim to present preliminary findings at the conference.