Publications

Stakeholder Participation and Regulatory Policymaking in the United States

November 7, 2014

Regulation is one of the most common and important ways in which public policy is made and implemented in the United States. Agencies of the federal government issue thousands of regulations on an annual basis. Although many of these actions deal with routine matters, impose minimal burdens, and in some instances reduce or eliminate existing regulatory requirements, agencies annually promulgate hundreds of new regulations with significant effects on the economy and political system.

NHTSA’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards: Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) Communications

October 21, 2014

In August 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) and an accompanying technical report to initiate the rulemaking process to establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS No. 150) that would require vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capabilities in new passenger cars and light truck vehicles.

Interim Final Rules Over Time: A Brief Empirical Analysis

September 25, 2014

Interim final rules are an exception to the APA requirement that agencies use the notice-and-comment process before finalizing a rulemaking.

The Political Transaction Costs and Uncertainties of Establishing Environmental Rights

September 24, 2014

New Study Finds Federal Regulation Costs Over $2 Trillion Per Year and Disproportionately Affects Small Businesses

September 10, 2014

National Association of Manufacturers puts a price tag on regulatory compliance

A Retrospective Review of Regulatory Review Itself

August 26, 2014

An interesting new paper from the Mercatus Center, “The Legacy of the Council on Wage and Price Stability”,* takes an instructive look back at the origins of centralized review of federal regulations.

Disclosure as a Form of Market-based Regulation

August 18, 2014

A new working paper seeks to identify the underlying incentive problems that caused the global financial crisis and how they may be resolved.

Bank Disclosure and Incentives

August 15, 2014

Korok Ray proposes a microeconomic model of a bank that acts as a financial intermediary engaging in maturity transformation.

Administrative Procedures and Political Control of the Bureaucracy

August 1, 2014

Positive theorists have argued that administrative procedures enhance political control of the bureaucracy, in part by predisposing agencies toward policy choices preferred by legislators' favored constituents. Although this “deck-stacking” argument has been both influential and controversial, few scholars have subjected it to empirical examination. This article assesses the operation of a prominent administrative procedure—the notice and comment process—in the context of Medicare physician payment reform, a fundamental restructuring of the way in which the Medicare program pays for physician services.

How to Improve Retrospective Review and Reduce Regulatory Burdens

July 18, 2014

In response to a request for information, we filed a comment offering three recommendations to further DOE's retrospective review efforts.