Regulatory Reform

The mission of the Working Group on Regulatory Reform at the O’Neill School is to bring new evidence, methods, and insights to the public debate on regulatory reform. The O’Neill Working Group has a special interest in the application of analytic tools (risk assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, and benefit-cost analysis) in the regulatory process. We also have a strong interest in the comparison of regulatory activities in different countries, both through document reviews and expert interviews. 

Our Group is comprised of faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, students, and others, and we welcome inquiries from practitioners and scholars from other organizations who might wish to join our efforts or visit the O’Neill School.  For example, during 2016-17 we hosted the former Hungarian Minister of the Environment Zoltan Illes, who offered interesting perspectives on European approaches to environmental regulation.  

All testimonies are by John D. Graham unless otherwise noted:

• Comment on “Report on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases: Estimates Incorporating Recent Scientific Advances” to the EPA, by Arthur Fraas, John D. Graham, Kerry Krutilla, Randall Lutter, Jason Shogren, W. Kip Viscusi1
  (February 13, 2023)
• Testimony on “Midterm Review and an Update on the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Motor Vehicles,” before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade and the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington D.C. (September 22, 2016)
• Testimony on “Proposed Cres-Staffing Rule,” Federal Railroad Association, Docket No.” FRA-2014-0033, before the U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C. (July 15, 2016)
• Testimony on “The Federal Government on Autopilot: Delegation of Regulatory Authority to an Unaccountable Bureaucracy,” before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.  (May 24, 2016)
• Testimony on “Moving to a Stronger Economy through Regulatory Budgeting,” before Senate Budget Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. (December 9, 2015)
• Testimony on “Surface Transportation Reauthorization: Performance, not Prescription,” before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, Washington, D.C. (March 24, 2015)
• Testimony on “Examining Federal Rulemaking Challenges and Areas of Improvement Within the Existing Regulatory Process,” before the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, Washington, D.C. (March 19, 2015)
• Testimony on “The First Step to Cutting Red Tape: Better Analysis” before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Secret Science Reform Act of 2014, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. (April 30, 2014)
• Testimony on “Regulatory Aspects of Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP),” before the U.S.-EU Free Trade Agreement, Committee on Trade, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium (October 14, 2013)
• Testimony on “Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform under the Obama Administration,” before the at the OMB-OIRA Oversight Hearing, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, United States Congress (March 21, 2012)
• Testimony on “How a Broken Process Leads to Flawed Regulations,” before the OMB-OIRA Oversight Hearing, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, United States Congress (September 14, 2011)
• Testimony on “Cost-Justifying Regulations: Protecting Jobs and the Economy by Presidential and Judicial Review of Costs and Benefits,” before the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law, House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Congress (May 4, 2011)
• Testimony on S. 981, “Regulatory Improvement Act of 1997,” before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington D.C., 105^th Congress, First Session (September 12, 1997)
• Testimony on S. 123, S. 229, S. 333, and S. 343, “Impacts of Regulatory Reform on Environmental  Law,” before the Committee on Environment and Public Works, U. S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 104th Congress, First Session (March 22, 1995)
• Testimony on Title III, H.R. 9, “Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis of New Regulations,” before the Committee on Science, U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., 104th Congress, First Session (January 31, 1995)
• Testimony on Title III, H.R. 9, “Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis of New Regulations,” before the Committee on Commerce, U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., 104th Congress, First Session (February 2, 1995)
• Testimony on S. 291, “Regulatory Reform Act of 1995,” before the Governmental Affairs Committee, U. S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 104th Congress, First Session (February 15, 1995)
• Testimony on “Reform of the Delaney Clause,” before the Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition, Committee on Agriculture, U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., 103rd Congress, First Session (July 14, 1993)
• Testimony on “Reform of the Delaney Clause,” before the Joint Hearing, House Subcommittee on Health and Environment and Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Washington, D.C., 103rd Congress, First Session (September 21, 1993)
• Testimony on “The Role of Risk Analysis in Environmental Policy Making,” before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U. S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 103rd Congress, Second Session (November 9, 1993)

• "Why a national carbon tax is smart policy: SPEA dean outlines benefits in new book" - IU Newsroom, June 12, 2017
• "IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs dean testifies at Senate hearing on regulatory budget" - IU Newsroom, December 9, 2015

November 3-4, 2022: Annual Meeting of the European Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis Society, Paris School of Economics

• Kerry Krutilla, "Expanding the Growth Theoretic Foundations of the Ramsey Discounting Formula"

March 17-18, 2022: Society of Benefit Cost Analysis Annual Meeting, George Washington University, Washington D.C.

• Kerry Krutilla, "The Limitations of the Ramsey Discounting Rule for Climate Policymaking"

October 10, 2016: China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Beijing

• Kerry Krutilla, “Theory, Methods and Practices of Benefit Cost Analysis in the United States: A Case Study in PM2.5 Policy Analysis.” Sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund.

June 22-25, 2016: Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Zurich, Switzerland

• Katie Fledderman, David Good, John Graham, and Kerry Krutilla, “The effect of differential fine particle toxicity on the economic evaluation of air pollution regulations”

March 16-18, 2016: Eighth Annual Conference and Meeting of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, Washington, D.C.

• Kerry Krutilla, Gabriel Piña, David H. Good, and John D. Graham, “Benefit cost analysis of lifesaving regulations from the department of transportation”
• Alexander Alexeev and Kerry Krutilla, “Strategic benefit cost analysis for security threats”

December 6-10, 2015: Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, Crystal City, Virginia

• Alexander Alexeev and Kerry Krutilla, “Benefit cost analysis in a strategic and risky environment”
• Katherine Fledderman, David H. Good, Kerry Krutilla, and John D. Graham, “An uncertainty analysis of recent air regulations”

November 12-14, 2015: APPAM 37th Annual Fall Research Conference, Miami, Florida

• Gabriel Piña, Kerry Krutilla, David H. Good, and John D. Graham, “Benefit cost analysis of federal transportation safety regulations”

September 15-18, 2015: IEEE 18th International Conference, Canary Islands, Spain

• David Good, Kerry Krutilla, Stanley Chien, Lingxi Li, Yaobin Chen, “Preliminary benefit analysis for pedestrian crash imminent braking systems,” Intelligent Transportation Systems

June 24-27, 2015: Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Helsinki, Finland

• Kerry Krutilla, David H. Good, and John D. Graham, “Uncertainty in the Cost-Effectiveness of Federal Air Quality Regulations”
• Kerry Krutilla and Alexander Alexeev, “Rent-Seeking in Environmental Policy Making: Is the Expected Surplus Dissipated”

June 15-17, 2015: Workshop sponsored by the Science and Technology Section of NATO: “Cyber Attack Detection, Forensics, and Attribution for Assessment of Mission Impact,” Istanbul, Turkey

• Alexander Alexeev and Kerry Krutilla. Cyber-Attack as a Contest Game: Modeling the Economic Impact.

March 19-20, 2015: Seventh Annual Conference and Meeting of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, Washington, D.C.

• Kerry Krutilla and Gabriel Piña, “Using Kaldor-Hicks Tableaus in Regulatory Impact Assessment”

• December 2014: Society for Risk Analysis
• December 2014:Southern Economic Association
• March 2014: Society for Benefit Cost Analysis
• March 2014: Public Choice Society

• “Fracking Governance: History, Differences and Trends,” (John D Graham, John A Rupp), Environmental Impacts from the Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Reserves, 79-102, (eds, J.F. Stolz, W.M. Griffin, DJ Bain), Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK (2022)

•  “Regulatory Reform, Benefit-Cost Analysis, and the Poor,” (John D. Graham), The Regulatory Review, University of Pennsylvania, (March 2022)

• "Incorporating Environmental Justice into Benefit-Cost Analysis of Federal Rulemakings,"(John D. Graham,  University of Richmond Public Interest Law Review, 25(3) 149 (2022)

• “Reforming Circular A-4, Memos to the New OIRA Administrator,” (Graham, John D.), Regulation, 45 (Spring 2022)

• Fifty Years at the US Environmental Protection Agency: Progress, Retrenchment, Opportunities, (James Barnes, John D. Graham, David Konisky (eds)), Rowman and Littlefield, (2021)

• “The Benefits and Costs of Automobile Regulations for Low-Income Americans,” (Kylie Conrad, John D. Graham), Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, 12(3) 518-549, (Fall 2021)

• “The Ascendency of the Cost-Benefit State?" (Paul R Noe, John D Graham),  Administrative Law Review/ACCORD, 5: 85-151, (Winter 2020)

• “Book review, Potter, Rachel Augustine, ‘Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy,’ Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2019,” (Graham, John D.), 244 pp in Presidential Studies Quarterly, 50(1) 232-233 (2019)

• “Trump's Deregulation: Is It Working?” (Keith B Belton, John D. Graham), Administrative Law Review, 71(4) 803-880 (2019)

• “Does Dynamic Federalism Yield Compatible Policies? A Study of Federal and State Vehicle Standards,” (Siddiki, Saba, Carley, Sanya, Zirogiannis, Nikolaos, Duncan, Denvil, Graham, John D.), Policy Design and Practice, 1(3) 215-232, (2018)

• “Industrial Chemical Regulation in the European Union and the United States: A Comparison of REACH & the amended TSCA,” (Botos, Agnes, Graham, John D., Illes, Zoltan), Journal of Risk Research, (April 23, 2018)

•  “A Smart Regulatory Process for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses,” (Williams, Anna M., Belton, Keith B., Graham, John D.), Commissioned by the American Council on Capital Formation (ACCF), Washington, D.C., (February 2017)

• “Consumer’s Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis: Ten Tips for Being an Informed Policymaker,” (S. Dudley, R. Belzer, G. Blomquist, T. Brennan, C. Carrigan, J. Cordes, L.A. Cox , A. Fraas, J.D. Graham, G. Gray, J. Hammitt, K. Krutilla, P. Linquiti, R. Lutter, B. Mannix, S. Shapiro, A. Smith, W.K. Viscusi, R. Zerbe) Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis (July 27, 2017)

• “Carbon Tax Policy: A Conservative Dialogue on Pro-Growth Opportunities,” (Anderson, Kristen Soltis, Carroll, Robert J., Graham, John D., Mathur, Aparna, Swagel, Phillip, Viard, Alan D.), Alliance for Market Solutions, Washington, D.C., (2017)

• “Regulatory Reform in the Trump Era,” (Belton, Keith B., Krutilla, Kerry, Graham, John D.), Public Administration Review, 77(5) 643-644, (September/October 2017)

• “EPA’s New Source Review Program: Time for Reform?” (Art Fraas, John D. Graham, Jeff Holmstead) Environmental Law Reporter 47 (1) 10026-10040 (January 2017)
• “Automobile Safety Standards in the U.S. and EU,” (John D. Graham), Directorate-General for External Policies, Policy Department, European Parliament, Free Trade Agreements and Patterns of Risk Regulation in the EU and the U.S., International Risk Governance Council, Lausanne: IRGC (2016) 
• “The EU Budget System after Lisbon: How the European Parliament lost power and how it may compensate (somewhat) for it,” (Michael W. Bauer, John D. Graham, Stefan Becker), Zeitschrift fur Staats und Europawissenschaften, Journal for Comparative Government and European Policy, 13 (4) 479-496 (2016) 
• “Cyber-Attack as a Contest Game,” (Alexander Alexeev and Kerry Krutilla)  In A.Kott (ed.) Proceedings of the NATO IST-128 Workshop: Assessing Mission Impact of Cyberattacks, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, ARL-SR-0349, pp. 66-74 (2015)
• “Preliminary Benefit Analysis for Pedestrian Crash Imminent Braking Systems,” (David Good, Kerry Krutilla, Stanley Chien, Lingxi Li,  and Yaobin Chen), Proceedings of Intelligent Transportation System Conference, v18 pp 1123-8 (2015)
• "Stealth Regulation: Addressing Agency Evasion of OIRA and the Administrative Procedure Act," (John D. Graham , James W. Broughel), Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy-Federalist Edition, Vol.1, No.1, 30-54 (2014)
• "How to Buttress the Weakened 'Winner'? The Eurapean parliament's budgetary powers after Lisbon," (John D. Graham, Michael W. Bauer, Katerina Potapova), 21st International Conference of Europeanists (CES), Washington, D.C. (March 14-16, 2014)
• "Regulatory and Quasi-Regulatory Activity without OMB and Cost-Benefit Review," (John D. Graham, Cory R. Liu), Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 37, No. 2, 425-45 (2014)
• "Uncertainty in the Cost-Effectiveness of Federal Air Quality Regulations," (Kerry Krutilla, David H. Good, John D. Graham), Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, 6, 2015, 66-111, 2015 doi:10.1017/bac.2015.7
• "Beyond Process Excellence: Toward Enhancing Societal Wellbeing," (John D. Graham, Paul R. Noe), draft paper for discussion at the University of Pennsylvania conference on "Regulatory Excellence" (March 19-20, 2015)
• “Due Process and Management for Guidance Documents: Good Governance Long Overdue,” (Sergio Fernandez,  John D. Graham), Paper presented at the International Risk and Governance Council’s Workshop on Emerging Risks, Rüschlikon, Switzerland (December 16 -17, 2010) 
•  “Why Governments Need Guidelines for Risk Assessment and Management,” (John D. Graham), Risk and Regulatory Policy: Improving the Governance of Risk, OECD Reviews of Regulatory Reform, 237-246 (2010)
•  "Is There a Universal Precautionary Principle?" (John D. Graham, Sarah Olmstead)  Controversies in Globalization, 115-124, CQ Press, Washington, D.C. (2009)
•  “Saving Lives through Administrative Law and Economics,” (John D. Graham), University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 157 (2) 395-540, (December 2008) 
• “Due Process and Management for Guidance Documents: Good Governance Long Overdue,”(John D. Graham, Paul Noe), Yale Journal on Regulation, 25 (1) 103-112 (Winter 2008)
• “The Evolving Regulatory Role of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget,” (John D. Graham), Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Volume 1 (2) 171-191 (2007)
• “Regulatory Improvement Legislation: Risk Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Judicial Review,” (Fred Anderson, Mary Ann Chirba-Martin, Donald Elliott, Cynthia Farina, Ernest Gelhorn, John D. Graham, C. Boyden Gray, Jeff Holmstead, Ron Levin, Lars Noah, Katherine Rhyne, and Jonathan Wiener), Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, 11 (1) 89-138, (2000)