Commentaries & Insights

Our Commentaries and Insights are short-form publications intended to distill long-form research and synthesize current policymaking activity into easily understood concepts.


A Taxonomy of Regulatory Forms

There is a lot of interest in understanding what effects regulations have on economic growth and other macroeconomic measures, but measuring those impacts is challenging, in part because regulatory metrics themselves are rather blunt. Pages or even words in regulatory code may not tell the whole story. Intuitively, the form a regulation takes is relevant for predicting its impacts.

Spring Unified Agenda Sustains Deregulatory Focus

Targeting regulations that limit competition

GDPR: Does it matter on this side of the Atlantic?

GDPR: Does it matter on this side of the Atlantic?

Better Data Collection Would Improve Analysis of NEPA Regulations

Better data collection and reporting are key to analyzing how NEPA implementation has evolved and investigating whether the Act is achieving its goals.

Regulating Within a Budget

The Trump Administration’s regulatory budget constraint may help improve agency benefit-cost analyses.

Embracing Ossification: Trump and the Shifting Politics of Procedural Controls

Deregulatory efforts by the Trump Administration have shown that procedures have similar effects on both attempts to deregulate and regulate.

A Brief History of Regulation and Deregulation

Ever since Congress created the first federal regulatory body more than 130 years ago, people have debated the proper role for what has been called the “fourth branch” of government. This essay provides a brief history of regulation and deregulation, reviewing the key milestones that have shaped regulatory practices in the United States from the mid-1900s to the presidency of Donald J. Trump.

Organizing Agencies to Promulgate Rules

Rulemaking process can use hierarchical, team-based, or outside advisor models

OMB Report on Regulatory Costs & Benefits Leaves Room for Regulatory Reform

The Office of Management and Budget released its Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations (“the Report”), which provides a window into regulatory activity conducted by federal agencies toward the end of the Obama administration in Fiscal Year 2016.