Improving Regulatory Accountability: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future
Journal Articles & Working Papers
These documents are the apex of the Center's academic research. Our working papers are authored with the intention of publishing them in peer-reviewed journals at a later date, and our journal articles are setting the standard in their academic disciplines.
Regulatory organizations can be structured in different ways, and choices about their organizational structure can impact regulators’ behavior and performance, both overall as well as at the level of individual employees. This paper analyzes structural decisions about regulatory organizations along two dimensions: vertical structure and horizontal structure.
State Funeral Regulations: Inside the Black Box
This study estimates the effects of state regulations affecting funeral markets. It accounts for multiple major categories of regulations and demand inducement as well as direct price effects. While concurring with prior studies that find ready-to-embalm regulations increase funeral costs and decrease the percentage of cremations, this study finds that several other state regulations are associated with significantly higher receipts per death.
Point/Counterpoint: Valuing Internalities in Regulatory Impact Analysis
In this Point/Counterpoint series of 4 articles in the new issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, Brian Mannix & Susan Dudley engage in a back-and-forth with Hunt Allcott & Cass Sunstein on the advisability of regulatory interventions based solely on "internalities," which Allcott & Sunstein define as "costs we impose on ourselves by taking actions that are not in our own best interest."
The Limits of Irrationality as a Rationale for Regulation
James Madison was speaking of the structural checks on governmental power when he wrote those words, but it is worth recalling his advice when we contemplate the role of benefit-cost analysis as a check on the unconstrained exercise of the government's regulatory powers, and the implications of the reality that people's behavior, both in and out of government, sometimes falls short of what we might incorporate into an economic model or hope for in a perfect world.
Achieving Regulatory Policy Objectives: An Overview and Comparison of U.S. and EU Procedures
The quality and extent of government regulation is “a major determinant of prosperity." As the World Bank observes, “a thriving private sector—with new firms entering the market, creating jobs and developing innovative products—contributes to a more prosperous society,” “promotes growth and expands opportunities for poor people.”