The study aimed to uncover other (perhaps stronger) factors by undertaking a political economy analysis, focusing on how historical legacies coupled with institutional constraints (in essence, the ‘rules of the game’) shaped policy-makers’ incentives to seek and use knowledge. An analysis of the executive branch of the government (including at the level of the president, the cabinet, across government and within ministries); political parties and the parliament (including the influence of the parliament and the role of parliamentary commissions); and analytical capacity within the government (including within the executive and the legislature, civil service performance, the strength of informal and personalised networks and sources of knowledge external to government) provided some clues as to the incentives different types of policy-makers face in seeking and using knowledge in their work