Critiques of Regulatory Policy

1
Critiques of Regulatory Policy
2
Regulatory Successes

• FDA since 1900
• Environmental regulation
• Through the 1980s
• Workplace safety
• Civil rights

3
Regulations that Did Not Work so Well

• Airline rates and routes
• Trucking rates and routes
• Telecommunications
• Who wins and who loses in economic regulations?
• Small towns and rural areas
• Unions
• Big business

4
Are We Better Off?

• What has improved over the past 50 years?
• Health?
• Racism?
• Do more people have more stuff?
• What does it mean to be poor in the US over the
  past 50 years?
• What has gotten worse?
• Income disparities?
• Role of expectations?

5
Why Doesn't the Public Trust Agencies?

• What are examples of public distrust of agencies?
• Are these justified?
• What is the impact of this distrust?
• Why don't people want to pay taxes?

6
FDA

• Drug lag?
• What are the tradeoffs in FDA regulation?
• Safety
• Effectiveness
• Should cost be part of the equation?
• Why are consumers in a poor position to judge
  drugs?
• Background Information?
• Timeframe of action?
• Comparison with other drugs?
• Why not let the market sort it out?

7
Health Care as a Regulated Industry

• What are the problems facing health care in the
  US?
• What has happened to nature of disease over the
  past 100 years?
• How does this complicate health care policy?
• What does this tell us about the Charity Hospital
  system?
• What are the financial incentives in health care?

8
How is Ethanol a Regulatory Problem?
9
Cost Benefit Analysis

• How much should we spend to save a life?
• How much to prevent injury?
• How much should personal responsibility matter?
• personal protective gear?

10
CBA Costs - Table 3-1 - p. 151

• What is the problem with lives saved analysis?
• Are they the same lives for different risks?
• What about disability?
• What are the most cost effective regulations?
• Interesting that vaccinations and clean drinking
  water are not here

11
Could We Spend the Money More Wisely?

• What type of risks do we spend the most on with
  the least return?
• Asbestos abatement of stable asbestos in
  buildings
• Superfund risks
• Overstated health risks - LA cancer corridor
• What risks get the least attention?
• Smoking?
• Immunizations?
• Primary care?

12
What is the Cost of Unemployment?

• Economic costs to the individual
• Lost opportunities for your children
• Lost of assets, making recovery harder
• Health costs
• Stress
• Reduced access to care
• Self-esteem
• Crime

13
Should we do CBA at All?

• Why not prevent all possible risks?
• What are the trade offs?
• How does the US concern with risks affect our
  cost of business production?
• When can preventing one risk cause another?
• Natural pesticides
• Smaller, lighter cars
• More expensive power?

14
Non-Agency Regulation Tort and Compensation Law

• How is tort law a regulatory process?
• Is it a democratic process?
• What is the public input?
• Who protects the public's interest in tort cases?
• What are the standards for scientific
  decisionmaking?
• Breast implants?
• Erin Brockovich?
• What are the standards for CBA?
• What if later evidence shows that the verdict or
  settlement was wrong?

15
Should We Control Personal Risk Decisions?

• Should consumers have the right to buy much
  cheaper and better mileage cars that are less
  safe?
• Should consumers have the right to use unapproved
  drugs?
• What if they are dying?
• What about not getting their kids vaccinated?
• Smoking?
• Smoking dope?

16
Impossible Tasks

• Why do legislatures give agencies impossible
  tasks?
• What are the possible agency responses?
• What is the conflict between LSU owning both the
  charity hospital system and the medical school?
• What about the state regulating state owned
  hospitals?

17
Civic Republicanism

• How can agencies be better representatives for
  the whole population than are the elected
  officials?
• What are the pressures on elected officials?
• How are these different for agencies?
• Independent agencies?
• Should there be more public participation?
• Should congress and the executive have to
  disclose all contacts with the agency?

18
Regulatory Alternatives
19
Economic incentives and Taxes for Environmental
Risks

• Tradeable permits for a fixed amount of pollution
• Would require the government to decide how much
  pollution is OK, not to just focus on process
• Lets industry see who can do it the most
  efficiently
• What if you are downwind?
• Does an aggregate reduction, which benefits more
  people, make you any happier?

20
Collective bargaining for working conditions and
safety

• What are the limits on this?
• How could we change them?
• Is this a good idea?

21
Negative income tax rather than Government
Benefits

• Proposed by Nixon
• Why might a conservative argue for this?
• Should we let people choose what to do with their
  money?
• Who could benefit?
• What are the benefits in administrative costs
  over the current benefits system?
• What are the problems?

22
What about Natural Monopolies?

• What are natural monopolies?
• Why not allow cable companies to compete for
  business in a given community?
• How can natural monopolies change with time?
• Telephones?
• IBM mainframe computers?
• Can antitrust laws be an alternative?

23
Agency Personnel Issues

• How does political control conflict with agency
  expertise?
• What are the problems with attracting good people
  to agencies?
• Could these be changed?
• Will strict conflict of interest rules make
  agencies work better?
• Do you need industry expertise in the agency?
• FDA?
• Do you want people to stay in the agency for
  their whole life?

24
Assignment for Thursday Should We Rebuild New
Orleans?

• Would NO be in better or worse funding position
  if they had properly evacuated the folks before
  Katrina?
• What is the CBA for real evacuations?
• What is the CBA?
• What are the trade-offs?
• Who should pay
• What about the responsibilities of the
  homeowners?
• Should we bail them out?
• How much do you want to pay?
• What about coastal erosion and subsidence?
• Should we rebuild before it is safe?
• If we do not rebuild, what happens to the CBA?