Archive for December, 2013
Britain’s Ministry of Nudges
Dec 9th
Editor’s Note: For more information about regulatory review in the UK, please see OIRA Watch here.
From: New York Times
By: Katrin Bennhold
Alex Gyani had an idea, but even he considered it a little far-fetched.
A 24-year-old psychologist working for the British government, Mr. Gyani was supposed to come up with new ways to help people find work. He was intrigued by an obscure 1994 study that tracked a group of unemployed engineers in Texas. One group of engineers, who wrote about how it felt to lose their jobs, were twice as likely to find work as the ones who didn’t. Mr. Gyani took the study to a job center in Essex, northeast of London, where he was assigned for several months. Sure, it seemed crazy, but would it hurt to give it a shot? Hayley Carney, one of the center’s managers, was willing to try.
The Anti-Capture Justification for Regulatory Review
Dec 2nd
From: RegBlog
Michael A. Livermore and Richard L. Revesz
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), charged since the days of Ronald Reagan with overseeing the activities of regulatory agencies, is a consistent target of attack from across the political spectrum. Critics on the right argue that OIRA doesn’t do enough to rein in “job-killing” bureaucrats, while critics on the left argue that OIRA stands in the way of life-saving environmental, public health, and safety protections.