LPE Blog

Symposium

A Post-Neoliberal Regulatory Analysis for a Post-Neoliberal World

By James Goodwin

While treating economic growth as the summum bonum of public policy may reflect the preferences of economists, large majorities of voters across the political spectrum oppose using the aim of wealth maximization to guide regulatory decision-making. The time has come to abandon cost-benefit analysis and adopt a progressive approach to regulatory analysis.

Symposium

The Limits of the Cost-Benefit Worldview: A Disability-Informed Perspective

By Karen Tani

Two examples from the experience of people living with disabilities demonstrate CBA’s shortcomings.

Symposium

Modernizing Regulatory Review Beyond Cost-Benefit Analysis

By Melissa Luttrell, Jorge Roman-Romero

CBA’s reliance on a “partial equilibrium” falls apart under the weight of real-world complexity. Rather than attempting to reform cost-benefit analysis, OIRA should reject it outright.

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: October 8, 2021

By LPE Editors

Zachary Liscow offers three strategies for bringing distribution into cost-benefit analysis, Elizabeth Popp Berman calls on liberals to politicize CBA, and Stacy Seicshnaydre discusses the untapped potential of the fair housing act. Plus, a bevy of new LPE events!

Symposium

Using Legal Tools to Bring Debt and Equity into Balance

By Stacy Seicshnaydre

The Fair Housing Act, as written, provides several tools to challenge inequitable urban development. Yet the courts have been reluctant to enforce the law.

Symposium

Let’s Politicize Cost-Benefit Analysis

By Elizabeth Popp Berman

Conservatives have used cost-benefit analysis much more strategically than liberals to advance underlying political goals. Rethinking CBA within an LPE framework will require not only critique of its technical assumptions, but a willingness to be similarly strategic in thinking about its deployment.

Symposium

Equity in Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis

By Zachary Liscow

Standard cost-benefit analysis exacerbates inequality by assigning greater weight to benefits that accrue to the rich. But it need not. Here are three strategies for bringing concerns about distribution within the CBA framework.

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: October 1, 2021

By LPE Editors

Frank Pasquale introduces a symposium on the future of cost-benefit analysis, Lisa Heinzerling explains how cost-benefit analysis limits ambitious action on climate change and racial justice, and Dedrick Asante-Muhammad discusses the institutional racism of municipal bonds.

Symposium

Living in a Capitalist City With No Capital

By Dedrick Asante‑Muhammad

Elite white capital created housing for middle-class whites built by working-class whites. Nowhere in this process, nor in the profit of lending, the employment of housing construction, or the long-term appreciation of white homeownership, was there a meaningful place for African Americans to bridge racial economic inequality.

Symposium

Climate Change, Racial Justice, and Cost-Benefit Analysis

By Lisa Heinzerling

Two entrenched features of cost-benefit analysis ensure that the benefits of regulatory measures addressing climate change and racial injustice will be diminished and deformed in the process of valuing them: discounting and monetary valuation.

Symposium

Cost-Benefit Analysis at a Crossroads: A Symposium on the Future of Quantitative Policy Evaluation

By Frank Pasquale

Introducing an LPE symposium on the promise, the perils, and the possible future of cost-benefit analysis.

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: September 24, 2021

By LPE Editors

A possible silver lining in the TransUnion decision, the role of early corporations in economic thought, and the continued racism of municipal bond ratings.

Symposium

The Same System, the Same Results

By Brittany Alston

Every year, governments and public entities wrestle with tough decisions about how they will fund their communities, and every year we absolve Wall Street of its role in siphoning money away from our public budgets. Enough is enough.

Essay

When the Moral Economy Became a Political Economy

By Emily Erikson

History shows that the standards by which societies judge economic activity change over time. As these moral frameworks evolve—or devolve—many of the changes make their way into law. For example, modern anti-trust law is grounded in the widely accepted belief that monopolies depress competition and growth and encourage unscrupulous behavior. However, in. . .

Essay

TransUnion Is a Double-Edged Sword: Should the Legal Left Wield It?

By Christopher Morten

The logic of the Court’s recent TransUnion decision should make it harder, perhaps impossible, for corporations to enforce various forms of so-called “intellectual property” against competitors and the public. Could and should the legal left wield TransUnion for our own purposes?

LPE Masthead

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