Regulation

Research

The Pitfalls of Regulating Consumer Credit Todd Zywicki, Robert Sarvis \| Jan 14, 2013 Government regulators proposing restrictions on specific forms of consumer credit all too often ignore the reality of how and why consumers use credit. They also ignore lenders’ legitimate reasons for pricing their services as they do; consumers’ legitimate reasons for choosing the financing options they do; the risks consumers face when credit offerings are made unavailable to them; and the many consumers who use the particular forms of consumer credit responsibly and effectively.	A Process for Cleaning Up Federal Regulations Joshua C. Hall, Michael Williams \| Dec 20, 2012 This paper suggests a process to identify, evaluate, and eliminate inefficient regulations. Combining lessons from two successful government reform programs—the Base Realignment and Closure Act in the United States and the Dutch Administrative Burden Reduction Programme—the proposed framework would identify the regulatory costs associated with a historical piece of legislation and create a target for reduction in regulatory costs.
Regulatory Benefits: Examining Agency Justification For New Regulations Sherzod Abdukadirov \| Dec 18, 2012 This study attempts to shed some light on whether the benefits claimed by the federal agencies are likely to be achieved. In contrast to other validation studies, the study focuses on the agencies’ benefit claims rather than the actually measured benefits. Since agencies justify their regulatory decisions based on expected benefits, examining the quality of these claims is important.	OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health John Leeth \| Dec 10, 2012 When OSHA was established, proponents believed it would dramatically improve the safety and health of American workers. During the forty years of its existence, workplace fatalities and nonfatal injuries and illnesses have fallen but OSHA is not the major cause of this decline. Changes in the industrial mix of workers and improvements in safety technology have combined with expanded employer incentives unrelated to OSHA to decrease worker injuries and illnesses. The financial incentives for employers to expand expenditures on worker safety and health created by the labor market, states' workers' compensation insurance programs, and the legal system swamp the meager incentives created by OSHA.
Regressive Effects of Regulation Diana Thomas \| Nov 27, 2012 This paper highlights the unacknowledged burden regulation of health and safety has placed on low-income households. Billions of dollars are spent every year to reduce life-threatening risks that arise from auto travel, air travel, air and water pollution, food, drugs, construction, and the list goes on. By focusing on the mitigation of low-probability risks with higher cost, regulation reflects the preferences of high-income households and effectively redistributes wealth from the poor to the middle class and the rich.	OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health John Leeth \| Nov 13, 2012 This paper examines OSHA in light of the other forces affecting workplace safety in the United States to generate a set of policy recommendations for how it can best use its limited resources to improve worker safety and health. No evidence exists that expanding the total number of inspections or the average amount of fines for noncompliance would improve its effectiveness significantly.

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Testimony & Comments

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Electronic Stability Control Systems for Heavy Vehicles Antony Dnes \| Aug 20, 2012 NHTSA seeks to establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (No. 136) that would require electronic stability control (ESC) systems to be fitted as standard on truck tractors and certain passenger buses with a gross vehicle weight rating of greater than 26,000 pounds (vehicles not using air brakes are excluded from the NPRM). ESC systems work by automatically applying computer-controlled braking selectively at separate wheels and inducing lower engine torque output to reduce rollovers and mitigate severe under-steer or over-steer conditions that lead to loss of control in a vehicle.	Perspectives on Retrospective Review and Analysis Randall Lutter \| Jul 12, 2012 More generally, greater data collection, access, and analysis can foster improved understanding of regulations and contribute to reducing regulatory burdens and improving their effectiveness.
The Impacts of Overdraft Programs on Consumers Todd Zywicki, Asa Skinner \| Jun 28, 2012 Profits gained from overdraft protection have been used by banks to expand services and accessibility for customers both rich and poor, and limiting overdraft protection may threaten many of the benefits that it makes possible.	Comment on OMB's Draft 2012 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations Richard Williams \| Jun 11, 2012 The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has requested comment on the 2012 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local and Tribal Entities (hereafter referred to as “the OMB report”). This comment has been produced by Richard A. Williams, Ph.D., of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, an education, research, and outreach organization that works with scholars, policy experts, and government officials to bridge academic theory and real-world practice.
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform under the Obama Administration Richard Williams \| Mar 21, 2012 Richard Williams testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law on how effective regulatory reform has been under the Obama Administration.	Public Interest Comment on DOL Fair Labor Standards Rule Antony Dnes \| Feb 27, 2012 This Public Interest Comment analyzes proposed changes to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations that would expand the scope of the regulations to include live-in home-care workers and other domestic services and suggests that the compliance costs of these changes cannot be justified for the proposals.

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Research Summaries & Toolkits

Overriding Consumer Preferences With Energy Regulation W. Kip Viscusi, Ted Gayer \| Aug 06, 2012 In the recent Mercatus Center study, “Overriding Consumer Preferences with Energy Regulation,” Ted Gayer, co-director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution, and W. Kip Viscusi, University Distin- guished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management at Vanderbilt, examined the economic justification for recent U.S. energy regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The study found that the energy-efficiency standards have a relatively minor effect on greenhouse-gas emissions, and—per the regulating agencies’ own estimates—cannot pass cost-benefit analyses based on their environmental benefits alone. To justify these regulations, the agencies relied on estimated benefits derived from correcting consumer “irrationality.”…	Mercatus Center Policy Guide \| Aug 03, 2012 The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to provide you with our new policy guide. The guide is designed to provide easily accessible economic information that might prove useful in pre- paring for hearings or town hall meetings, drafting speeches or policy papers, and generally educating the public regarding spending, taxes, regulation, financial markets, and technology policy.
Energy Regulations: Protecting "Irrational" Consumers From Themselves? Ted Gayer, W. Kip Viscusi \| Aug 01, 2012 In recent years, federal agencies have issued energy-efficiency standards for everything from cars to light bulbs. These regulations are commonly billed as important efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. But, according to a new study published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the standards have a negligible effect on emissions.	Beware the Surge: "Midnight Regulations" Sherzod Abdukadirov \| Jun 25, 2012 In a series of studies, Mercatus Center scholars examined the phenomenon of “midnight regulations,” or regulations promulgated between a presidential election day and an inauguration day.
Letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Regarding the Underperformance of Regulatory Analysis Richard Williams \| Jun 11, 2012 For the past 15 years, the Office of Management and Budget has provided Congress with reports on the combined annual benefits and costs of federal agency regulatory programs. All have reported benefits exceeding costs, although it is impossible to tell whether that is actually true. OMB’s comparisons are inaccurate, for three reasons.	The Myth of "Deregulation" in Air Transportation Kenneth Button \| May 17, 2012 A new Mercatus Center study looks at the evolution and outcomes of government regulations in air transportation since the 1978 law was enacted.

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Speeches & Presentations

Solving Food Safety Problems Without Antiquated Regulation and Inspection Richard Williams \| Jul 08, 2012 The United States system of ensuring food safety (FS) is more than 100 years old and, until very recently, was the primary system designed to ensure FS. The system assumes that primarily federal regulators have the necessary knowledge to instruct food manufacturers on producing safe food, with both federal and state governments enforcing their respective regulations. While there have been notable successes in the last century — such as mandatory pasteurization for milk and other products, low acid canned food rules, and basic sanitation requirements — much of this progress was achieved in the first half of the 20th century. In the last 30 years, the incidence of foodborne disease has changed very little.	Smart Regulation and Competition Policy in Electric and Telecommunications Markets Jerry Ellig \| Jan 14, 2010 Jerry Ellig participated in panel discussion before Texas policy makers in Austin, Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Policy Orientation on the future of the Texas Public Utility…
The Future of Federal Regulation Jerry Ellig \| Nov 05, 2009 Jerry Ellig was invited to give a lecture at Pepperdine University about the future of regulations in the federal government.	Regulation and High Reliability Organizations Jerry Ellig \| May 28, 2009 Jerry Ellig presents before the Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security in the Visiting Speakers Program about regulation in high reliability organizations, such as…
Economics as a Guide to Telecom Reform Jerry Ellig \| Jan 22, 2009 Jerry Ellig presents at a Heartland Institute conference about Ohio telecommunications policy. Dr. Ellig discusses the role of consumer welfare in telecom policy.	Are We Safe Yet? Jerry Ellig, Jamie Belcore \| Jul 14, 2008 Jerry Ellig and Jamie Belcore present the process of regulatory analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.

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Mercatus Regulatory Studies

Charts

The Phenomenon of Midnight Regulations

Compared with non-election years, the number of economically significant regulations submitted for OIRA review more than doubles during midnight periods when control of the White House switches to a different party. The surge is rarely accompanied by an increase in OIRA’s budget or staff. Thus, OIRA can be overwhelmed during midnight periods, resulting in rushed, flawed oversight.

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Experts

Sherzod Abdukadirov

Sherzod Abdukadirov is a research fellow at the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Mark Adams

Mark Adams is a Research Fellow at Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Mark is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at George Mason University.

Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and directs the Technology Policy Program. His primary research interests are technology and telecommunications policy, government transparency and accountability, and the regulatory process.

James Broughel

James Broughel is a program manager of the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center. Mr. Broughel is a doctorate student in the economics program at George Mason University. He earned his MA in economics from Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Christopher J. Conover

Christopher J. Conover is an affiliated senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a research scholar at the Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research at Duke University.

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Videos

Veronique de Rugy Explains France's Spending Crisis on Varney & Company on Fox Business News

Veronique de Rugy | December 18, 2012

The U.N. and the Internet: Previewing the World Conference on International Telecommunication

Eli Dourado, Jerry Brito, Paul Brigner, Gary Fowlie, Milton L. Mueller, Terry D. Kramer | November 14, 2012

Podcasts

Geoff Manne on Copyright

Jerry Brito | December 11, 2012

Geoff Manne, lecturer in law at Lewis & Clark Law School and Executive Director of the International Center for Law & Economics, explains how, while also working from libertarian principles, he arrived at a very different view of copyright than either Brito or Bell. Taking an economic approach to property rights, Manne argues that there is a necessary tradeoff between incentive to create and widespread access. While Manne does recognize the value of widespread use, he says that its benefits must be weighed against the potential breakdown in specialization of labor and the value added by commercialization.

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Recent Events

Dr. Yandle's Quarterly Economic Update: January 2013

Please join the Mercatus Center's Capitol Hill Campus and Professor Bruce Yandle for an update on the state of the national economy.

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Books

Dodd-Frank: What It Does and Why It's Flawed

| Jan 08, 2013

More than 360,000 words in length, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is the longest and most complex piece of financial legislation in American history. The nature and magnitude of its effects, both intended and unintended, will become clearer as regulators exercise the broad discretion given to them under the law.

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More Media Clippings

The Pitfalls of Regulating Consumer Credit Todd Zywicki, Robert Sarvis \| Jan 14, 2013 Government regulators proposing restrictions on specific forms of consumer credit all too often ignore the reality of how and why consumers use credit. They also ignore lenders’ legitimate reasons for pricing their services as they do; consumers’ legitimate reasons for choosing the financing options they do; the risks consumers face when credit offerings are made unavailable to them; and the many consumers who use the particular forms of consumer credit responsibly and effectively.	A Process for Cleaning Up Federal Regulations Joshua C. Hall, Michael Williams \| Dec 20, 2012 This paper suggests a process to identify, evaluate, and eliminate inefficient regulations. Combining lessons from two successful government reform programs—the Base Realignment and Closure Act in the United States and the Dutch Administrative Burden Reduction Programme—the proposed framework would identify the regulatory costs associated with a historical piece of legislation and create a target for reduction in regulatory costs.
Regulatory Benefits: Examining Agency Justification For New Regulations Sherzod Abdukadirov \| Dec 18, 2012 This study attempts to shed some light on whether the benefits claimed by the federal agencies are likely to be achieved. In contrast to other validation studies, the study focuses on the agencies’ benefit claims rather than the actually measured benefits. Since agencies justify their regulatory decisions based on expected benefits, examining the quality of these claims is important.	OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health John Leeth \| Dec 10, 2012 When OSHA was established, proponents believed it would dramatically improve the safety and health of American workers. During the forty years of its existence, workplace fatalities and nonfatal injuries and illnesses have fallen but OSHA is not the major cause of this decline. Changes in the industrial mix of workers and improvements in safety technology have combined with expanded employer incentives unrelated to OSHA to decrease worker injuries and illnesses. The financial incentives for employers to expand expenditures on worker safety and health created by the labor market, states' workers' compensation insurance programs, and the legal system swamp the meager incentives created by OSHA.
Regressive Effects of Regulation Diana Thomas \| Nov 27, 2012 This paper highlights the unacknowledged burden regulation of health and safety has placed on low-income households. Billions of dollars are spent every year to reduce life-threatening risks that arise from auto travel, air travel, air and water pollution, food, drugs, construction, and the list goes on. By focusing on the mitigation of low-probability risks with higher cost, regulation reflects the preferences of high-income households and effectively redistributes wealth from the poor to the middle class and the rich.	OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health John Leeth \| Nov 13, 2012 This paper examines OSHA in light of the other forces affecting workplace safety in the United States to generate a set of policy recommendations for how it can best use its limited resources to improve worker safety and health. No evidence exists that expanding the total number of inspections or the average amount of fines for noncompliance would improve its effectiveness significantly.

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Electronic Stability Control Systems for Heavy Vehicles Antony Dnes \| Aug 20, 2012 NHTSA seeks to establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (No. 136) that would require electronic stability control (ESC) systems to be fitted as standard on truck tractors and certain passenger buses with a gross vehicle weight rating of greater than 26,000 pounds (vehicles not using air brakes are excluded from the NPRM). ESC systems work by automatically applying computer-controlled braking selectively at separate wheels and inducing lower engine torque output to reduce rollovers and mitigate severe under-steer or over-steer conditions that lead to loss of control in a vehicle.	Perspectives on Retrospective Review and Analysis Randall Lutter \| Jul 12, 2012 More generally, greater data collection, access, and analysis can foster improved understanding of regulations and contribute to reducing regulatory burdens and improving their effectiveness.
The Impacts of Overdraft Programs on Consumers Todd Zywicki, Asa Skinner \| Jun 28, 2012 Profits gained from overdraft protection have been used by banks to expand services and accessibility for customers both rich and poor, and limiting overdraft protection may threaten many of the benefits that it makes possible.	Comment on OMB's Draft 2012 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations Richard Williams \| Jun 11, 2012 The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has requested comment on the 2012 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local and Tribal Entities (hereafter referred to as “the OMB report”). This comment has been produced by Richard A. Williams, Ph.D., of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, an education, research, and outreach organization that works with scholars, policy experts, and government officials to bridge academic theory and real-world practice.
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform under the Obama Administration Richard Williams \| Mar 21, 2012 Richard Williams testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law on how effective regulatory reform has been under the Obama Administration.	Public Interest Comment on DOL Fair Labor Standards Rule Antony Dnes \| Feb 27, 2012 This Public Interest Comment analyzes proposed changes to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations that would expand the scope of the regulations to include live-in home-care workers and other domestic services and suggests that the compliance costs of these changes cannot be justified for the proposals.

Overriding Consumer Preferences With Energy Regulation W. Kip Viscusi, Ted Gayer \| Aug 06, 2012 In the recent Mercatus Center study, “Overriding Consumer Preferences with Energy Regulation,” Ted Gayer, co-director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution, and W. Kip Viscusi, University Distin- guished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management at Vanderbilt, examined the economic justification for recent U.S. energy regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The study found that the energy-efficiency standards have a relatively minor effect on greenhouse-gas emissions, and—per the regulating agencies’ own estimates—cannot pass cost-benefit analyses based on their environmental benefits alone. To justify these regulations, the agencies relied on estimated benefits derived from correcting consumer “irrationality.”…	Mercatus Center Policy Guide \| Aug 03, 2012 The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to provide you with our new policy guide. The guide is designed to provide easily accessible economic information that might prove useful in pre- paring for hearings or town hall meetings, drafting speeches or policy papers, and generally educating the public regarding spending, taxes, regulation, financial markets, and technology policy.
Energy Regulations: Protecting "Irrational" Consumers From Themselves? Ted Gayer, W. Kip Viscusi \| Aug 01, 2012 In recent years, federal agencies have issued energy-efficiency standards for everything from cars to light bulbs. These regulations are commonly billed as important efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. But, according to a new study published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the standards have a negligible effect on emissions.	Beware the Surge: "Midnight Regulations" Sherzod Abdukadirov \| Jun 25, 2012 In a series of studies, Mercatus Center scholars examined the phenomenon of “midnight regulations,” or regulations promulgated between a presidential election day and an inauguration day.
Letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Regarding the Underperformance of Regulatory Analysis Richard Williams \| Jun 11, 2012 For the past 15 years, the Office of Management and Budget has provided Congress with reports on the combined annual benefits and costs of federal agency regulatory programs. All have reported benefits exceeding costs, although it is impossible to tell whether that is actually true. OMB’s comparisons are inaccurate, for three reasons.	The Myth of "Deregulation" in Air Transportation Kenneth Button \| May 17, 2012 A new Mercatus Center study looks at the evolution and outcomes of government regulations in air transportation since the 1978 law was enacted.

Solving Food Safety Problems Without Antiquated Regulation and Inspection Richard Williams \| Jul 08, 2012 The United States system of ensuring food safety (FS) is more than 100 years old and, until very recently, was the primary system designed to ensure FS. The system assumes that primarily federal regulators have the necessary knowledge to instruct food manufacturers on producing safe food, with both federal and state governments enforcing their respective regulations. While there have been notable successes in the last century — such as mandatory pasteurization for milk and other products, low acid canned food rules, and basic sanitation requirements — much of this progress was achieved in the first half of the 20th century. In the last 30 years, the incidence of foodborne disease has changed very little.	Smart Regulation and Competition Policy in Electric and Telecommunications Markets Jerry Ellig \| Jan 14, 2010 Jerry Ellig participated in panel discussion before Texas policy makers in Austin, Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Policy Orientation on the future of the Texas Public Utility…
The Future of Federal Regulation Jerry Ellig \| Nov 05, 2009 Jerry Ellig was invited to give a lecture at Pepperdine University about the future of regulations in the federal government.	Regulation and High Reliability Organizations Jerry Ellig \| May 28, 2009 Jerry Ellig presents before the Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security in the Visiting Speakers Program about regulation in high reliability organizations, such as…
Economics as a Guide to Telecom Reform Jerry Ellig \| Jan 22, 2009 Jerry Ellig presents at a Heartland Institute conference about Ohio telecommunications policy. Dr. Ellig discusses the role of consumer welfare in telecom policy.	Are We Safe Yet? Jerry Ellig, Jamie Belcore \| Jul 14, 2008 Jerry Ellig and Jamie Belcore present the process of regulatory analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.