Jerry Ellig

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Jerry Ellig

  • Senior Research Fellow

Jerry Ellig is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he has worked since 1996. Between August 2001 and August 2003, he served as deputy director and acting director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. Dr. Ellig has also served as a senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and as an assistant professor of economics at George Mason University.

Dr. Ellig has published numerous articles on government regulation and business management in both scholarly and popular periodicals, including The Public Manager, Journal of Politics, Journal of Regulatory Economics, Managerial and Decision Economics, Antitrust Bulletin, Competitive Intelligence Review, Journal of Private Enterprise, Texas Review of Law & Politics, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Barron’s, and Washington Post. He has co-authored/edited several books, including Dynamic Competition and Public Policy (Cambridge, 2001), New Horizons in Natural Gas Deregulation (Praeger, 1996), and Municipal Entrepreneurship and Energy Policy (Gordon & Breach, 1994).

Dr. Ellig earned his PhD and MA in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and his BA in economics from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH.


PUBLISHED RESEARCH

New York University Journal of International Law and Politics

Talking the Talk, or Walking the Walk? Outcome-Based Regulation of Transnational Investment

Houman Shadab, Jerry Ellig | Jul 29, 2009
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeks to increase investors' access to foreign markets by negotiating bilateral agreements with foreign regulators pursuant to a policy known as "mutual recognition." Under mutual recognition, a foreign entity seeking to access U.S. capital markets would be permitted to substitute compliance with its home country's regulations for compliance with U.S. regulation, as long as it agrees to submit to SEC antifraud jurisdiction in its dealings with U.S. investors. Similarly, U.S. entities could enter foreign markets without subjecting themselves to a second layer of regulation on top of what the SEC already requires. This article suggests that the best way for the SEC to pursue mutual recognition is to recognize foreign securities regimes that achieve investor protection outcomes comparable to those achieved by the SEC, and provides a concrete and workable approach for the SEC to follow.
Scorecard
10th Annual Performance Report Scorecard: Which Federal Agencies Best Inform the Public? image

10th Annual Performance Report Scorecard: Which Federal Agencies Best Inform the Public?

Henry Wray, Jerry Ellig, Maurice P. McTigue | May 05, 2009
This Scorecard ranks the quality of disclosure of the Performance and Accountabiltiy Reports of the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act. Our reserach team looks at criteria in three categories: Transparency, Public Benefits and Forward-Looking Leadership.
Rutgers Law Journal
Homeland Security and Regulatory Analysis: image

Homeland Security and Regulatory Analysis:

Are We Safe Yet?
Jerry Ellig, Jamie Belcore | Oct 2008
During the five years since its inception, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) promulgated thirteen economically significant regulations, costing a total of at least four billion dollars annually. This study evaluates the quality of regulatory analysis that DHS has produced for these regulations. Compared to the ideal articulated in Executive Order 12,866 and accompanying Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) guidance, most of these analyses are seriously incomplete.
MORE PUBLISHED RESEARCH

WORKING PAPERS

Has GPRA Increased the Availability and Use of Performance Information? image

Has GPRA Increased the Availability and Use of Performance Information?

Jerry Ellig | Mar 2009
In this working paper, Senior Research Fellow Jerry Ellig shows that better GPRA reporting is correlated with greater availability and use of performance information.
Talking the Talk, or Walking the Walk? Outcome-Based Regulation of Transnational Investment (archive version) image

Talking the Talk, or Walking the Walk? Outcome-Based Regulation of Transnational Investment (archive version)

Houman Shadab, Jerry Ellig | Apr 2008
Today, individual U.S. retail investors have virtually limitless opportunities to invest their money, with a notable exception: they cannot directly invest in securities of foreign issuers and still be protected under U.S. law. This missing opportunity deprives U.S. investors of the ability to fully diversify their investments and also imposes undue costs and risks upon investors seeking to invest directly overseas. This paper demonstrates that a Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) policy of “mutual recognition” of foreign regulatory regimes that achieve investor protection outcomes comparable to those of the SEC would solve this problem.
Talking the Talk, or Walking the Walk? Outcome-Based Regulation of Transnational Investment image

Talking the Talk, or Walking the Walk? Outcome-Based Regulation of Transnational Investment

Jerry Ellig, Houman Shadab | Apr 2008
This article is forthcoming in the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (2008).Summary…
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POLICY BRIEFS

Federal Performance Reporting After 10 Years: How Does it Measure Up? image

Federal Performance Reporting After 10 Years: How Does it Measure Up?

Jerry Ellig | May 2009
Since fiscal year 1999, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) has required federal agencies to issue annual performance reports that measure the outcomes of federal programs. A research team from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University assesses these reports each year to see how well they inform Congress…
Best Practices in Fiscal 2008 Federal Performance Reports image

Best Practices in Fiscal 2008 Federal Performance Reports

Jerry Ellig | May 2009
The Mercatus Center's annual Scorecard that evaluates the quality of federal agencies' performance reports has identified substantial improvements in best reporting practices since FY 1999. However, only one or two reports used the best practices identified for most of our evaluation criteria in FY 2008. Since 60 percent of FY 2008 spending was covered by reports scoring below satisfactory, more rapid adoption of best practices could yield substantial benefits.
Measuring GPRA's Results image

Measuring GPRA's Results

Jerry Ellig | Apr 2009
The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) requires federal agencies to explain the concrete public benefits they seek to produce and report annually on their progress toward these outcomes. If GPRA works the way it is intended to work, then ultimately we should observe that funding for programs is closely related to the ability of those programs to achieve outcomes. At a minimum, we should observe federal managers using GPRA goals to manage programs for results.
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TESTIMONY & COMMENTS

State Testimony
Effects on Wine Sales, Tax Revenue, and Consumer Welfare image

Effects on Wine Sales, Tax Revenue, and Consumer Welfare

Tennessee Joint Study Committee on Wine in Grocery Stores
Jerry Ellig | Dec 08, 2009
In his testimony before the Tennessee Joint Study Committee on Wine in Grocery Stores, Senior Research Fellow Jerry Ellig argues that restrictions ought not be imposed on competition unless the restrictions accomplish some clear public purpose. Furthermore, the restriction should be no more severe than necessary to accomplish the public purpose, for this helps ensure that the government accomplishes its policy goal at the lowest possible cost to consumers.
Public Interest Comment

Mobile Wireless Competition Notice of Inquiry

Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig | Oct 07, 2009
In this Public Interest Comment, Senior Research Fellows Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig discuss the best ways to analyze competition within mobile wireless markets.
Public Interest Comment

Fostering Innovation and Investment in the Wireless Communications Market

Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig | Oct 02, 2009
In this Public Interest Comment, Senior Research Fellows Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig discuss the best ways to overcome barriers to innovation and investment in the wireless communications market.
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MEDIA CLIPPINGS

Washington Times

Once a deregulator ...

Jerry Ellig | Aug 27, 2009
Jerry Ellig is mentioned in the online edition of the Washington Times about Ted Kennedy's brief history of pushing for deregulation for transportation policy "Scholars Robert Crandall and Jerry Ellig find that even when figures are adjusted for changes in quality and amenities, deregulation still saves $19.4 billion per year in passenger costs, and these savings…
Wall Street Journal

New Crop of U.S. Acronyms Adds to Thistles and Tares in Language

Jerry Ellig | Jun 02, 2009
 

Mercatus Center Unveils 10th Annual Performance Scorecard

Henry Wray, Jerry Ellig, Maurice P. McTigue | May 05, 2009
 
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