Two recent papers deal with some hard questions in the area of cost-benefit analysis. Here are two recurring problems: (a) deciding which costs and benefits to count and (b) how precisely to count some types of costs and benefits. For example, can ‘collateral’ effects of government action be excluded from consideration? Is it appropriate to […] Read more

Adrian Vermeule and Cass Sunstein have an intriguing new paper on Libertarian Administrative Law: In recent years, several judges on the nation’s most important regulatory court — the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — have given birth to libertarian administrative law, in the form of a series of judge-made […] Read more

Cass Sunstein has a nice short essay on Justice Breyer in a forthcoming issue of the Harvard Law Review, “From Technocrat to Democrat“: There is an epistemic argument for judicial deference to the decisions of administrative agencies and legislatures: courts do not have easy access to relevant information, and they should defer to those who […] Read more

A provincial Irish newspaper called the Skibbereen Eagle famously concluded an editorial on European politics by noting that it would be keeping a close eye on the Tsar of Russia. There is nothing provincial about the accomplished Lisa Heinzerling, but she has nonetheless been keeping a close eye on President Obama’s former regulatory Tsar, Cass […] Read more

Cass Sunstein has been whetting appetites for his new book, Simpler: the Future of Government (out April 9) by doling out tasty samples of its content (see e.g. here and here). One of these is an essay for Foreign Affairs, “Regulatory Moneyball”. The title is borrowed from Michael Lewis’ superb Moneyball: the Art of Winning […] Read more

I linked in passing in Saturday’s post to Cass Sunstein’s very interesting article on OIRA, The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Myths and Realities. Here is the abstract: Since its creation in 1980, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has become a […] Read more