Fundamentally, public policy is supposed to address serious social problems. However, poorly designed policies exist. Often this happens when a well-intentioned policy generates unexpected and unintended consequences, and sometimes, these consequences leave policy-makers farther away from their goal than when they started.

In this short article, the author argues that researchers have a responsibility to link their work to the issues facing the world – to provide general insight, but also to help policymakers evaluate how best to solve them.