Evaluating the Quality and Use of Regulatory Impact Analysis: The Mercatus Center's Regulatory Report Card, 2008-2013
Mercatus, 2016
111 Pages Posted: 12 Aug 2016
Date Written: July 7, 2016
Abstract
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University initiated its Regulatory Report Card project in 2009 to assess how well executive branch regulatory agencies conduct and use regulatory impact analysis and to identify ways to motivate improvement. Report Card evaluations reveal that agencies often adopt regulations that affect several hundred million Americans and impose hundreds of millions of dollars in costs without knowing whether a given regulation will really solve a significant problem, whether a more effective alternative solution exists, or whether a more targeted solution could achieve the same result at lower cost. Extensive statistical analysis of Report Card scores suggests that institutional reforms are the most promising means of improving the quality and use of regulatory impact analysis.
Keywords: administrative procedure, Administrative Procedure Act, regulation, regulatory reform,regulatory process, benefit-cost analysis, cost-benefit, regulatory impact analysis, regulatory review
JEL Classification: D61, D73, D78, H11, H83, K23, L51, P16
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