For many decades the word “regulation” has been a bogeyman concept evoking images of unproductive and wasteful government bureaucracy. While this image has been a popular rallying cry for politicians over the years, every interest group — with the exception of libertarians — has actively...

I test theories of regulation using comprehensive datasets on regulatory changes, equity returns, and firm fundamentals. I find that firms in industries subject to more regulation earn significantly higher returns than firms in deregulated industries. A long-short regulatory portfolio earns 9.8%...

The rapid proliferation of connected devices has the potential to transform and enrich our lives and to drive significant productivity gains in the broader economy. However, the lack of sufficient security in many “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices creates a meaningful risk to consumers and...

In this report, we reply to the comments of Andzeg Skrzypacz and Robert Wilson on behalf of Frontline Wireless in the Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz Auction proceeding. Frontline's economists primarily advocate two restrictions on the auction that would significantly limit the...

This paper uses occupational employment and wage data for over 270 industries from 1990 to 2017 to estimate the percentage of an industry’s annual labor costs paid to perform regulation-related tasks. We hypothesize that this measure reflects the intensity of regulations that incentivize firm...

One of the greatest challenges facing regulatory government today concerns the safety of the food supply. Few Americans realize the extent and severity of the danger posed by foodborne pathogens. While many of these microorganisms are not new, changes in food production, preparation, and...

This paper is intended, first, to provide a brief overview of the history and some central principles of securities regulation in Canada. Second, this paper will focus specifically on the enforcement efforts of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). I center my analysis on the theoretical...

In the real world, taxes and cap-and-trade systems are rarely implemented in their pure form. In this paper, we examine a related approach that has been used widely in practice – which we refer to as an “offset.” The idea behind offsets is to encourage firms or entities that may not be a...

Several researchers have suggested using some type of offset program as a way of getting selected countries or sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The reason for this interest is that offset programs have the potential to reduce the costs of achieving a given environmental target. For...

This policy paper offers a synthesis of research on privatisation and its impacts on the utilities sector in different countries. It identifies issues to be considered by policy makers concerned with economic reform, including the implications of sequencing privatisation together with...