Regulation University

Regulation University is a series of educational programs designed for congressional staff to provide the skills and information essential to regulatory oversight and to understand the legal and institutional framework that produces and supports federal regulation.

Research

Beware the Surge of Midnight Regulations Sherzod Abdukadirov \| Jul 17, 2012 Administrations face fewer political constraints during the midnight period and, thus, take the opportunity to impose their policy preferences. These rushed, politically motivated regulations have poor quality analysis and face less stringent oversight from OIRA. Stemming the surge of midnight regulations requires comprehensive reform to constrain agencies’ ability to issue too many regulations and improve OIRA’s ability to oversee regulatory quality during the midnight period.	The Role of Retrospective Analysis and Review in Regulatory Policy Randall Lutter \| Apr 18, 2012 There are many obstacles to better regulatory measurement, analysis and review. But major setbacks include the agencies’ lack of impartiality in reviewing their existing regulations, an inappropriately narrow focus, and a failure to promote steps to better measure the actual benefits vs. the costs of regulations.
Is There a Market Failure In Cybersecurity? Eli Dourado, Jerry Brito \| Mar 06, 2012 Like gardens, the Internet developed without government intervention. Unnecessary regulation could break down the norms and practices that caused the Internet flourish in the first place.	Regulatory Alternatives James Broughel, Jerry Ellig \| Feb 21, 2012 This Mercatus on Policy shows how regulatory process reforms should require agencies to thoroughly analyze alternatives and publish that analysis for public comment before they propose a regulation.
The Law and Economics of Shareholder Voting Reform and the Costs of Proxy Access Thomas Stratmann, J. W. Verret \| Jan 17, 2012 The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 gave the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the authority to adopt a proxy access rule. Though the legislation urged an exemption for companies with less than $75 million in market capitalization, the SEC unexpectedly failed to provide a permanent exemption from the rule for those companies. This paper finds that, for the roughly 900 publicly traded companies studied with under $75 million in market capitalization, the proxy access rule caused on the order of $335 million in shareholder losses.	The Poor Quality of Affordable Care Act Regulations Christopher J. Conover, Jerry Ellig \| Jan 09, 2012 This Mercatus on Policy catalogs the main deficiencies of the regulatory analysis for the ACA regulations and compares them to other economically significant regulations proposed in 2008 and 2009.

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Testimony & Comments

On the Human Costs of the US Regulatory System: Should Congress Pressure Agencies to Make Rules Faster?

Patrick McLaughlin | Aug 01, 2013

Chairman Blumenthal, Ranking Member Hatch, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am an economist and senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a 501(c)(3) research, educational, and outreach organization in Arlington, Virginia. My primary research focuses on the regulatory process and how it could be improved, so I am delighted to testify on today’s topic.

Fixing the Watchdog: Legislative Proposals to Improve And Enhance the Securities and Exchange Commission

J. W. Verret | Sep 15, 2011

J.W. Verret testified before the House Committee on Financial Services about proposals to improve the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Who's Watching the Watchmen?

Todd Zywicki | May 24, 2011

Todd Zywicki testified before the House Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs.

Speeches & Presentations

The Employment Impact of Regulation

Keith Hall | Jun 14, 2013

Regulation can play an important role in a market economy where there are significant market externalities, incomplete markets, information asymmetries, or public goods. Ideally, regulation identifies and focuses on correcting these market failures with minimal economic cost.

Videos

Sixty Years Since the Administrative Procedure Act Necessary Improvements

Jerry Ellig, Richard Williams | February 04, 2015

Congress has a diverse array of proposed regulatory reforms vying for attention, from targeted reforms aimed at providing relief to small businesses to broad-based reforms of the rulemaking process. Though the proposals are diverse, they have a clear, shared objective: solving more problems at a lower cost with fewer regulations.

Consumer Protection and the CFPB What are the Consequences for Consumers?

Todd Zywicki | April 17, 2014

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University continues its "Future of Finance" series of events with a timely event focused on the regulation of consumer credit products. http://mercatus.org/events/consumer-protection-and-cfpb-what-are-consequences-consumers With the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), consumers face a brand new regulatory regime that will play an instrumental role in determining the availability of that credit. While the agency's mission is to protect consumers as they purchase and use financial products, its unique structure has raised concerns about the potential unintended consequences of regulating consumer credit.

Identifying the Problem: The First Step in the Regulatory Process

Jerry Ellig | April 10, 2014

The regulatory process consists of many stages, but the essential first step is answering the question "what's the problem?" A thorough regulatory impact analysis should provide evidence that the regulation addresses a significant, systemic problem and trace that problem back to its root cause. A cursory or faulty analysis of the problem prevents regulators from devising an effective solution and considering realistic alternatives.

Consequences of Regulation Accumulation

Patrick McLaughlin | February 28, 2014

Government spending may be slowing but regulatory output is not. The number of regulations passed the one million mark in 2010, and their volume continues to rise. What does the continuing growth of so many rules mean for the U.S. economy and individual industries? http://mercatus.org/events/consequences-regulation-accumulation…

Podcasts

Regulatory Look-Back-How Agencies Define "Less" to Mean "More"

, Sam Batkins | May 02, 2014

Identifying and navigating the regulatory maze applicable to the production of goods, the provision of services, the use of property, and numerous other activities is a daunting task even for the most experienced legal professional. At the federal level, presidents from Carter to Obama have issued executive orders directing agencies to review their regulatory stock in order to eliminate duplicate, obsolete and burdensome rules. What do the results from decades of such efforts tell us?

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How Regulations Can Create Problems: An Examination of Misdirected "Nudge"

Ted Gayer, Todd Zywicki | March 11, 2014

How Regulations Can Create Problems: An Examination of Misdirected "Nudge"

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What Can a Regulatory Expert Foresee?

Sherzod Abdukadirov | January 29, 2014

What distinguishes an expert from the rest is not what one already knows, but one’s effort to discover the unknown. That’s what makes the scientific method indispensable to cutting edge researchers.

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Money Market Fund Reform: An Alternative to the SEC's Proposal

Hester Peirce | November 06, 2013

Money market fund reform remains one of the most prominent unsettled issues in financial markets regulation after the 2008 crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s most recent effort which aims at balancing reforms with a desire to preserve the major benefits of money market funds has not achieved that objective. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University invites you to join Hester Peirce and Robert Greene for a Regulation University program that examines the need for money market fund reform, identifies potential problems with the SEC’s proposal, and offers recommendations for meaningful reform.

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Recent Events

Sixty Years Since the Administrative Procedure Act: Necessary Improvements

Jerry Ellig | February 04, 2015

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University invites you to a Regulation University presentation with Dr. Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow, on what causes regulatory “decision-making in the dark” today.

RegData 2.0: Quantifying Regulation

Patrick McLaughlin | July 29, 2014

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University invites you to a Regulation University program that introduces an enhanced research tool for quantifying federal regulation.

The Real Story of AIG’s Failure and Why Dodd-Frank Didn’t Fix It

Hester Peirce | June 17, 2014

The failure of American International Group Inc. was one of the main narratives from the financial crisis, prompting the push for greater financial market regulation and the adoption of Dodd-Frank. But what if the generally accepted account—that AIG’s supposedly unregulated derivatives activities sank the company—doesn’t actually tell the full story?

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Experts

Maurice P. McTigue

The Honorable Maurice McTigue, QSO, is vice-president at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is director of the Mercatus Center’s Government Accountability Project and a member of its Spending and Budget Initiative and State and Local Policy Project.

Jerry Ellig

Jerry Ellig is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a former assistant professor of economics at George Mason University. He specializes in the federal regulatory process, economic regulation, and telecommunications regulation.

Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito was a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of its Technology Policy Program. He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University. His research focuses on technology and Internet policy, copyright, and the regulatory process.

Todd Zywicki

Todd Zywicki is a senior scholar and senior fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Foundation Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law. He specializes in bankruptcy, contracts, commercial law, business associations, law and economics, and public choice and the law.

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Books

Government Performance and Results

Jerry Ellig, Maurice P. McTigue, Henry Wray | Sep 08, 2011

Summarizing the lessons learned from 10 years of research that evaluated the performance reports produced by federal agencies, the book assesses how the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) has affected the quality of agency performance reporting.

Beware the Surge of Midnight Regulations Sherzod Abdukadirov \| Jul 17, 2012 Administrations face fewer political constraints during the midnight period and, thus, take the opportunity to impose their policy preferences. These rushed, politically motivated regulations have poor quality analysis and face less stringent oversight from OIRA. Stemming the surge of midnight regulations requires comprehensive reform to constrain agencies’ ability to issue too many regulations and improve OIRA’s ability to oversee regulatory quality during the midnight period.	The Role of Retrospective Analysis and Review in Regulatory Policy Randall Lutter \| Apr 18, 2012 There are many obstacles to better regulatory measurement, analysis and review. But major setbacks include the agencies’ lack of impartiality in reviewing their existing regulations, an inappropriately narrow focus, and a failure to promote steps to better measure the actual benefits vs. the costs of regulations.
Is There a Market Failure In Cybersecurity? Eli Dourado, Jerry Brito \| Mar 06, 2012 Like gardens, the Internet developed without government intervention. Unnecessary regulation could break down the norms and practices that caused the Internet flourish in the first place.	Regulatory Alternatives James Broughel, Jerry Ellig \| Feb 21, 2012 This Mercatus on Policy shows how regulatory process reforms should require agencies to thoroughly analyze alternatives and publish that analysis for public comment before they propose a regulation.
The Law and Economics of Shareholder Voting Reform and the Costs of Proxy Access Thomas Stratmann, J. W. Verret \| Jan 17, 2012 The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 gave the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the authority to adopt a proxy access rule. Though the legislation urged an exemption for companies with less than $75 million in market capitalization, the SEC unexpectedly failed to provide a permanent exemption from the rule for those companies. This paper finds that, for the roughly 900 publicly traded companies studied with under $75 million in market capitalization, the proxy access rule caused on the order of $335 million in shareholder losses.	The Poor Quality of Affordable Care Act Regulations Christopher J. Conover, Jerry Ellig \| Jan 09, 2012 This Mercatus on Policy catalogs the main deficiencies of the regulatory analysis for the ACA regulations and compares them to other economically significant regulations proposed in 2008 and 2009.