new ideas for risk regulation（新想法的风险监管）.pdfVIP

Incorporating Equity in Regulatory and Benefit-Cost Analysis 1 Scott Farrow UMBC Prepared for the SRA/RfF Workshop on New Ideas for Risk Regulation June 22-23, 2009 Economists have been said to have a tin ear for political debates driven by distributional concerns. However, economists have been major contributors to the development of descriptive statistics of inequality as well as to the large literature on the integration of equity issues with social welfare. This paper first takes a “GAO” approach by asking what criteria might exist for distributional standards involving benefit-cost analysis. Second, the paper considers empirical issues in estimation of distributional effects seeking the positively informative as a step forward from current practice. The economic and risk analysis professions both lack governing bodies that issue credentials and promulgate analytical standards. This may be desirable in general but the practice creates a vacuum when governmental organizations such as the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) considers revisions to its guidelines for regulatory analysis (OMB 2003). This paper first considers the purpose and possible sources of specific guidelines, and second provides substantive and procedural suggestions for guidelines related to distributional impacts. 1Appreciation is extended to participants at the SRA/RfF New I