Each year we faced the interrogation of our peers (the OECD Secretariat and two “examining” countries), who quizzed us on both macro and micro policies, invariably from the viewpoint of hard-edged economic analysis. This is not to say that they were always right, but they were always putting forward the viewpoint and input of best-practice economics.
Why was this so valuable to the policy-making process? It made it easier for the national bureaucrats (who, by-and-large, agreed with these policies) to get these policies implemented, within a diverse decision-making framework in which other less-economically-rational views might well have prevailed.