Jerry Ellig

Jerry Ellig image
Download hi-res photo

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

The Quality and Use of Regulatory Analysis in 2008 image

The Quality and Use of Regulatory Analysis in 2008

Jerry Ellig, Patrick McLaughlin | Jun 22, 2010
This paper assesses the quality and use of regulatory analysis for economically significant regulations produced by federal agencies in 2008. A nine-member research team used a six-point (0-5) scale to evaluate regulatory analyses according to criteria drawn from Executive Order 12866 on Regulatory Planning and Review, Office of Management and Budget Circular A-4 on Regulatory Analysis, and scholarly research.
Ten Years of Results from the Results Act image

Ten Years of Results from the Results Act

Jerry Ellig | May 27, 2010
This paper summarizes lessons learned from a ten-year research project that evaluated the quality of annual performance reports produced under GPRA by the 24 U.S. federal agencies that account for more than 95 percent of all federal spending. The Mercatus Performance Report Scorecard evaluated agency reports based on 12 principal criteria found in GPRA.
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.
MORE WORKING PAPERS

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.
MORE POLICY BRIEFS

TESTIMONY & COMMENTS

Public Interest Comment

Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund

Jerry Ellig | Jul 09, 2010
Creation of the Connect America Fund offers the FCC the opportunity to make a clean break with past subsidy disbursement practices that were often ineffective, inefficient, and unaccountable for achieving the outcomes articulated in the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Public Interest Comment

Public Interest Comment on the Draft 2010 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities

Richard Williams, Jerry Ellig, John Morrall | Jul 06, 2010
As always, OMB has produced a very thorough report based on the instructions provided in the Regulatory-Right-to Know Act. Nevertheless, it is time to re-examine this report to see if it can be made more useful for those responsible for the regulatory state.
Public Interest Comment

Public Interest Comment on Lead Clearance and Clearance Testing Requirements

Jerry Ellig | Jul 01, 2010
The EPA recently proposed a regulation that requires dust wipe testing for lead dust generated by renovations covered by its 2008 Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program rule. Except for a small number of specified situations, the proposed rule requires that the results of the dust wipe test be furnished to building owners.
MORE TESTIMONY & COMMENTS

MEDIA CLIPPINGS

New Jersey Star Ledger

Distributors push bill to limit direct interstate sale of alcoholic beverages

Jerry Ellig | Aug 11, 2010
Jerry Ellig's 2007 study on wine prices and shipping and is cited by the New Jersey Star Ledger.
LA Times

Bill uncorks a brawl over interstate sale of alcohol

Jerry Ellig | Aug 05, 2010
Jerry Ellig’s study on interstate wine sales is cited by the L.A. Times.
The Washington Times

Spare us the broadband plan

Jerry Ellig | Mar 31, 2010
Jerry Ellig points out just how costly it will be to do things the FCC's way
MORE MEDIA CLIPPINGS