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1. What Do We Know About Regulatory Oversight? Robert Hahn and Paul Tetlock
AEI-Brookings Joint Center
Prepared for DTI/BRE Conference on the Evaluation of Regulation
November 24, 2006
2. Problem Statement
3. Regulatory Oversight: Background Definition: A formal process for improving regulation, typically using economic analysis
Used worldwide
4. Objectives Provide motivation for oversight
Offer six observations
Review experience
Suggest alternatives for improving oversight in the U.S. and EU
Get feedback for paper
5. Bottom Line Evidence in support of effective oversight is modest
Oversight worth doing
May be better ways to measure impacts
Politicians can make improvements now
Progress takes time
6. Motivation for Oversight Regulation could be much more efficient
Proof
CBA of regulations, industry-wide studies, economy-wide estimates
Remark: Regulation can be good
7. Example of Efficiency Potential
8. The Impact of the Regulatory Oversight Process Observation 1: Economic analysis could improve regulations in selected instances
9. The Impact of the Regulatory Oversight Process Observation 2: Not clear that regulatory oversight processes have a significant impact
10. Characterization of Regulatory Impact Analyses
11. Characterization of Regulatory Impact Analyses
12. Observation 5: Ex ante and ex post estimates don’t tell us much about systematic biases
Characterization of RIAs (cont’d)
13. Observation 6: Costs are low in comparison to potential benefits
Characterization of RIAs (cont’d)
14. Specific Recommendations Implementing the US benefit-cost report in other countries / EU
“Scorecard” to summarize regulatory analysis
Promote transparency (e.g., reasons for decision, turnaround time, meetings)
More than one overseer (US)
Information markets for measuring oversight and regulatory impact
15. Thoughts on Regulatory Budget Idea: Impose budget constraint
Problem: Measurement
Experiment
16. Conclusion News neither all bad nor all good
Impact of regulatory oversight likely to be modest in short term
Still worth doing because of potential
Patience is a virtue