Americans expect federal regulation to accomplish many important things, such as protecting the country from financial … fraudsters, preventing workplace injuries, preserving clean air, and deterring terrorist attacks. Regulation also requires … tradeoffs—there is no such thing as a free lunch. Depending on the regulation, consumers may pay more, workers may receive less …

make new regulations more economically efficient. First, before designing a regulation, regulators should define the … problem the regulation is supposed to address, which should include determining whether a widespread and systemic problem …

hundreds of millions of dollars in costs without knowing whether a given regulation will really solve a significant problem …