About Us

Activities

The Political and Economic Research Council (PERC) is a non-partisan centrist policy institute devoted to research, public education, and outreach on public policy matters. PERC has a broad mandate but emphasizes issues related to information policy, credit access, and the global information economy.

Mission and Activities

PERC aims to improve the quality of public debate and policy matters concerning some of the most pressing challenges of our time by using original and existing research. Our goal is to educate and engage policy makers, consumers, industry, and the larger public, in the firm belief that a better informed polity makes better decisions.

PERC's mandate is to examine the interplay between regulatory regimes, industry practices, and the markets in which they operate. In particular PERC emphasizes issues where the use or misuse of data may have an effect on markets, consumers, and economies.

PERC activities fall under three headings:

  • Research, the execution of original studies, and the review of existing academic literature, that falls within our stated mandate;
  • Education, the dissemination and distillation of findings to the broader public;
  • And, Outreach, the dissemination of study findings to policy makers and thought-leaders in industry and academia.

    This three-tiered approach is based on a belief that top-notch research is of little or no value if it does not percolate beyond academia. And typically, any topic engaged by PERC go through this three-part treatment. Topics for research, education, and outreach, are selected by PERC staff with the counsel of supporters and our Board of Advisors.

    Specifically our areas of research to date have included the following.

  • Consumer credit access in the United States --

    A series of projects examining the way various forms of consumer debt (i.e. credit card debt, mortgages, and auto loans) are priced and distributed (across socio-demographic tiers) in the United States.

  • Dataflows and Global Development --

    Projects in this category consider the interplay between technological and educational endowments, regulatory regimes, and economic development. Projects in this category have examined the relationship between a variety of factors--from cross-border data flows to credit reporting systems--and how these factors affect developing and developed world economic performance.

  • Data Security --

    Projects in this category are devoted to the increasingly politicized issue of consumer data security. PERC activities include quantitative study and field research assessing the quality of data security provided by firms. And PERC also examines the adequacy of legislative and industry initiated approaches to securing consumer data, both domestically and abroad.

  • Worldwide Sourcing --

    These activities are focused on the phenomenon of worldwide sourcing (better known as offshore outsourcing) and examining its economic impact domestically and abroad. PERC places particular emphasis on how cross-border data flows, data security practices, and legal frameworks for data protection may affect worldwide sourcing patterns.

  • Media Concentration and Convergence --

    PERC projects in this area are devoted to the idea that media consolidation will lead to less viewpoint diversity in media, undermining the quantity and quality of information available to the public with harmful consequences for our nation's democratic discourse and lead to the emergence of an "Information Divide".

  • Data Privacy --

    While many of PERC's areas of research implicate issues of data privacy, this heading covers data privacy topics that do not fall under other existing categories. Projects in this area include examinations of consumer attitudes towards solicitation and direct marketing, irrespective of marketing channel.

    • You Score, You Win: The Consequences of Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

    Using non-traditional data for underwriting loans to thin-file borrowers: Evidence, tips and precautions

    Economic Impacts of Payment Reporting Participation in Latin America

    White Paper

    White Paper (Spanish)

    The Impact of Provider- Identifiable Data on Healthcare Quality and Cost

    Executive Summary

    On the Impact of Credit Payment Reporting on the Financial Sector and Overall Economic Performance in Japan

    (Japanese Summary )


    Give Credit Where Credit is Due: Increasing Access to Affordable Mainstream Credit Using Alternative Data

    Towards a Rational Data Breach Notification Regime.


    Giving Underserved Consumers Better Access to the Credit System


    Information Systems, Computer Crimes, and Criminal Justice."

    Edward Roche, Institute Director of Scientific Intelligence Releases Second Edition of Cybercrime Book

    Recent Center on the Global Information Economy Publications

    "Privacy Rights and Policy Wrongs: How Data Restrictions can Impair Information-Led Development in Emerging Markets."