Abolition of Resale Price Maintenance The London-based Institute for Economic Affairs (AEI) from its beginning undertook an extensive publishing program to push forward its free-market ideology. Among its publications was one particular paper, which had a direct and immediate political impact. Published in 1960 "Resale Price Maintenance and Shoppers' Choice" by Basil Yamey argued for the abolition of Resale Price Maintenance, which by fixing prices in shops prevented large stores from necessarily under-cutting smaller shops. Yamey argued that a free market in shop prices would save the shoppers £180,000,000 a year, and prices would fall by five percent. The publication of Yamey's paper was timed to coincide with a period of public debate on the subject to ensure maximum impact, and Yamey's suggestions were taken up by the incumbent Conservative Government. Although the Abolition of Resale Price Maintenance by Edward Heath in 1964, can not only be attributed to Yamey's paper, it for sure had a substantial impact.

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Media-Appearance of Think Tanks To disseminate their respective ideologies think tanks produce vast amounts of publications, including research reports, newsletters, magazines and books. Although the quality of their "research findings" sometimes is of questionably scientific value their "experts" are regularly quoted in the print-media and also appear on television and radio. Nevertheless, in most cases, when representatives of think tanks are used as experts on a topic, they are introduced as independent scholars, hiding the fact, that they are related to certain ideologies. "When a think tank representative is used as an expert on a topic, often that person's media-framed credibility may be measured by the ideological label attached to them. By failing to politically identify representatives of think tanks, or identify the financial base of think tanks, major media deprive their audiences of an important context for evaluating the opinions offered, implying that think tank "experts" are neutral sources without any ideological predispositions." (Michael Dolny)

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Table: Media References to Major U.S. Think Tanks Think Tank Political Orientation Number of Media Citations 1995 Number of Media Citations 1996 Number of Media Citations 1997 Brookings Institution U.S. Centrist 2192 2196 2296 Heritage Foundation U.S. Conservative 2268 1779 1813 American Enterprise Institute U.S. Conservative 1297 1401 1323 Cato Institute U.S. Conservative/libertarian 1163 1136 1286 RAND Corporation U.S. Center-right 795 826 865 Council on Foreign Relations U.S. Centrist 747 727 755 Center for Strategic and International Studies U.S. Conservative 612 586 668 Urban Institute U.S. Center-left 749 655 610 Economic Policy Institute U.S. Progressive 399 452 576 Freedom Forum U.S. Centrist 496 625 531 Hudson Institute U.S. Conservative 354 396 481 Institute for International Economics U.S. Centrist 410 288 438 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities U.S. Progressive - 359 425 Hoover Institution U.S. Conservative 570 350 355 Carnegie Endowment U.S. Centrist 517 502 352 Competitive Enterprise Institute U.S. Conservative 298 205 290 Manhattan Institute U.S. Conservative 254 227 261 Progressive Policy Institute U.S. Centrist 455 279 251 International Institute for Strategic Studies U.S. Conservative 177 145 177 Institute for Policy Studies U.S. Progressive 161 110 172 Worldwatch Institute U.S. Progressive 201 186 168 Center for Defense Information U.S. Progressive 136 187 158 Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies U.S. Center-left 255 228 158 Progress and Freedom Foundation U.S. Conservative 570 234 122 Reason Foundation U.S. Conservative/libertarian 229 133 92

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