Critiques of Regulatory Policy

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Critiques of Regulatory Policy
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Regulatory Successes

• FDA since 1900
• Environmental regulation
• Through the 1980s
• Workplace safety
• Civil rights
• Banking
• Sort of - lots of moral hazard problems

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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?

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Are We Better Off?

• What has improved over the past 50 years?
• Pollution?
• 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?

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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?

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Cost Benefit Analysis

• How much should we spend to save a life?
• Why does Congress refuse to put a price on human
  life?
• Why does this make CBA more difficult?
• How much to prevent injury?
• How much should personal responsibility matter?
• personal protective gear?

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CBA Costs - Tables from Saving Lives A Review of
the Record

• 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
• What are the most costly regulations?

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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?

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What is the Cost of Unemployment?

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

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Should we do CBA at All?

• Why not prevent all possible risks?
• Precautionary principle
• 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?

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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?

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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?

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How is Ethanol a Regulatory Problem?

• Would anyone burn ethanol as motor fuel without
  government subsidizes?
• What is the policy basis for pushing ethanol?
• What are the political issues?
• What are the downsides of ethanol?
• Is this a wise regulatory choice?

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Stopped here
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Should We Control Personal Risk Decisions?

• Should consumers have the right to use unapproved
  drugs?
• What if they are dying?
• What about not getting their kids vaccinated?
• Smoking?
• Smoking dope?
• Being fat?

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Regulatory Alternatives
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Economic Incentives and Taxes for Environmental
Risks

• Tradeable permits for a fixed amount of pollution
• Looks at total pollution or greenhouse gas, not
  process of control
• 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?
• Carbon Tax
• Goes to the heart of the CO2 program
• What are the downsides?

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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?

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CBA - Federal Flood Insurance

• Should the feds provide flood insurance?
• Why does it not work in the private market?
• Why are the political pressures on the feds?
• Do local communities really want accurate flood
  maps?
• Do people really want accurate storm probability
  predictions?
• Are the feds really going to charge accurate
  premiums?
• What are the perverse incentives of the program?

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CBA 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 for rebuilding?
• What are the trade-offs?

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Who should pay?

• Should folks in low risk areas subsidize the Big
  Easy lifestyle?
• How about rebuilding rich folks houses on the
  Mississippi coast?

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What about the responsibilities of the homeowners?

• Should we bail them out when they do not buy
  insurance?
• How much do you want to pay?

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What about coastal erosion and subsidence?

• Should we rebuild homes before it is safe?
• If we do not rebuild, what happens to the CBA?
• Is coastal restoration justified by the CBA?
• What does the CBA look like if it only slightly
  delays the loss of the coast?
• How do you figure in the patronage value?
• Would LSU Med be in NO if you did not include the
  patronage value?