Federal 
1 Apr 2008
Regulating How Drop-Out Rates Are Reported:
The tip of the iceberg of a persistent information quality problem
by Richard Belzer
in Information Quality
Department of Education secretary Margaret Spellings has announced a new regulation to control how states report drop-out rates. Under existing law, the states have the discretion to devise their own formulas. This makes interstate comparisons problematic. It also reflects the states' interest in devising formulae that under-report actual drop-out rates.
Under the proposed rule, all states would have to use the same federally prescribed formula. More...
29 Jul 2007
Differential Pricing of College Education:
Charging more for certain majors
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
It is an anomaly of the higher education market that there are widespread differences in price both across and within colleges and universities, but historically a student's choice of major has not been a pricing criterion. Universities are beginning to experiment with differential pricing, though apparently with considerable apprehension. More...
27 Jul 2007
Who Pays the Cost of Regulation?
Insights from corporate income tax incidence
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
Regulation is widely understood as a tax on the activity or person being regulated. Where these activities repair genuine market failures, benefits from regulation may result. If there are benefits from, say, automobile safety regulation, one would expect the beneficiaries to be persons who otherwise would have been killed or injured at the pre-regulatory safety level.
But what about the costs of regulation? Who bears them? More...
8 Jul 2007
Ranking Public School Quality (Badly), Part 2:
Does per pupil spending predict average SAT scores?
by Richard Belzer
in Information Quality
Following up on yesterday's post, in which we pointed out numerous information quality errors in the high school ranking by Christina Settimi and published by Forbes, we decided to address this question using her data. More...
7 Jul 2007
Ranking Public School Quality (Badly):
Forbes' has problems with information quality
by Richard Belzer
in Information Quality
School quality is something about which everyone seems to have an opinion, and a compulsion to rank. For example, every year there is a kerfuffle about the college rankings published by US News and World Report. This year the ranks of college administrators refusing to provide data to US News has grown because opponents have become more organized.
Elementary and secondary school rankings are the latest trend, and the number of rankings can be expected to grow as more statistics are made available. What do these rankings actually mean?
More...
11 May 2007
Government-wide Information Quality Guidelines:
Does journal peer review achieve "adequate" objectivity?
by Richard Belzer
in Information Quality, Peer Review, Glossary
Federal guidelines require information disseminated by federal agencies to satisfy a few broad criteria, one of which is objectivity. These guidelines give a "rebuttable presumption" to scientific information published in scholarly journals.
- Do all scholarly journals transmit this rebuttable presumption of objectivity? What about scholarly journals that also have an advocacy mission?
- What is the burden of proof for mounting a successful rebuttal?
More...
9 May 2007
Federal Agency Guidance Documents:
What's "significant"?
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
OMB has new procedures for agencies to follow in making significant guidance documents transparent.
We posted an extensive discussion on OMB's Bulletin on Good Guidance Practices, and recently OMB issued an implementation memorandum. Yesterday we commented on the first task facing federal regulatory agencies: assembling and publishing online lists of guidance documents.
Today we address another fundamental question: What constitutes a "significant" guidance document, an d how is this determination made? More...
8 May 2007
Federal Agency Guidance Documents:
Building the inventory
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
Executive Order 13422 and OMB's Bulletin on Good Guidance Practices will lead to major changes in the way federal agencies issue guidance.
The first step for each agency is to develop and publish inventories of their significant guidance documents. The deadlines for agency compliance are July 24, 2007 (for significant guidance documents issued on or after January 25, 2007) and August 23, 2007 (for all significant guidance documents). More...
7 May 2007
The New OMB Regulatory Review Procedures:
A primer on implementation
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
On April 25 OMB issued guidance to agencies concerning the implementation of Executive Order 13422. More...
14 Feb 2007
Executive Order 13422, Part 5a
The House subcommittee oversight hearings
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
Today we start a series summarizing the testimony from all eight witnesses who appeared yesterday before two separate House oversight subcommittees. More...
13 Feb 2007
Executive Order 13422, Part 4b
An update on today's congressional hearings
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
The previously scheduled joint subcommittee hearing has been split into a back-to-back marathon double hearing. See our event record for links to witness testimony.
The full witness list is below.
| Committee | Administration Witnesses |
Majority Witnesses |
Minority Witnesses |
| Science |
Sally Katzen David Vladeck Rick Melberth |
William Kovacs | |
| Judicary | Steven D. Aitken |
Curtis W. Copeland Sally Katzen Peter L. Strauss |
Paul R. Noe |
More...
8 Feb 2007
Executive Order 13422, Part 4
Partisan opposition erupts
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
We thought we'd finished discussing Executive order 13422, President Bush's recent amendment to the Clinton-era Executive order on centralized regulatory review.
On Tuesday, February 13, a pair of House subcommittees will hold a hearing to criticize the Executive order.
More...6 Feb 2007
Good Guidance Practices
Definitions, requirements, and consequences
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy
On January 18, the Office of Management and Budget issued final
government-wide guidance on the issuance of guidance in lieu of
rulemaking. OMB's Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices is
rich with content. Today we begin a series intended to educate the
public about this Bulletin and its implications for regulatory policy
and process.
More...
5 Feb 2007
Market Success, Regulatory Failure
Lessons for regulatory policy from the market for blind-side offensive tackles in the NFL
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy, Information Quality
Michael Rosen reviews The Blind Side, a book on college and pro football by Michael Lewis. Rosen uncovers the reason why blind-side (usually left) offensive tackles are so important in football, and why they are so well paid.
They are valuable because they protect teams' franchise players, their (usually right-handed) quarterbacks from sacks, fumbles, and most importantly, injury. They are paid well because there is an unregulated market for their services, and unregulated markets generally work very well.
More...4 Feb 2007
Executive Order 13422, Coda
Whither the vice president?
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Policy, People & Institutions
Press accounts concerning the changes President Bush has made to White House regulatory review procedures show that reactions have been largely partisan, and thus predictable and uninformative. We posted a three-part series analyzing the text of Executive order 13422 found here, here, and here.
One important question has not arisen in these press accounts, but should have. Historically, it has been the vice president who has been given the authority to decide matters of regulatory controversy within the Executive branch. But the veep isn't mentioned in Executive order 13422. Where did he go? More...
