Robert W Hahn
Biographic Data
| ID | 1470796 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert W Hahn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert W |
| FAMILY NAME | Hahn |
| SIGNATURE | HAHN R W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Council of Economic Advisers |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6233-7221 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 92 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
How Well Do Governments Assess the Distributional Impacts of Policy
Policy makers are showing increased interest in understanding the impacts of public policies on subgroups of the population. We provide the first cross‐regional comparison of distributional analyses by examining 907 benefit–cost analyses (BCAs) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union from 2016 through 2020. In these regions, we find almost no quantification of net benefits for a population subgroup (2 US BCAs, 0 UK BCAs, …
Incorporating equity and justice concerns in regulation
US regulatory agencies have been encouraged to consider the equity and distributional impacts of regulations for decades. This paper examines the extent to which such analysis is done and provides recommendations for improving it. We analyze 189 regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) that monetize at least some benefits and costs prepared by a variety of agencies from October 2003 to January 2021. We find that only two RIAs calculated the net benefits…
Thales, the “Pythagorean Theorem”, and Technological Context
De récents débats sur le « théorème de Pythagore » suggèrent que Pythagore n’aurait rien à voir avec celui-ci, mais, en procédant à l’ingénierie inverse du projet, à partir du Timée de Platon (53c), en construisant le cosmos à partir de triangles rectangles, et en remontant en arrière, nous pourrons peut-être entrevoir une nouvelle approche qui relie la géométrie et la métaphysique du triangle rectangle, et par conséquent Pythagore, au théorème, …
The impact of economic regulation on growth: Survey and synthesis
This study provides a survey of research that uses cross‐country comparisons to examine the relationship between economic regulation and growth. Studies in the peer‐reviewed literature tend to rely on either World Bank or Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development measures of regulation. Those studies seem to reflect a consensus that entry regulation and anticompetitive product and labor market regulations are generally harmful to gro…
Promoting customer engagement: A new trend in utility regulation
This paper traces a new development in regulation that encourages utilities to engage more directly with their customers. We make four contributions: First, we perform a comprehensive analysis of how regulators are using customer engagement, and offer a simple model for understanding different customer engagement initiatives. Second, we review assessments of customer engagement. We find that there arenoquantitative, empirically robust assessments…
Building upon foundations for evidence-based policy
Can government culture evolve under a promising new law?
Designing Smarter Regulation with Improved Benefit-Cost Analysis
Benefit-cost analysis is required for many regulatory decisions in the United States and in other countries. In this paper, I examine a standard textbook model that is used in benefit-cost analysis as it is actually applied to environmental policy and other areas of regulation. My primary objective is to suggest how including some key factors in the analysis could promote the development of smarter regulation.I begin by presenting a standard econ…
Addressing the next wave of Internet regulation: Toward a workable principle for nondiscrimination
The ultimate formulation of the Federal Communications Commission's “nondiscrimination on the Internet” principle could have a significant impact on economic welfare and on innovation. In this article, we explain the economics of discrimination as it applies to the Internet, and we offer a new approach for identifying anticompetitive discrimination. Our proposal would require a complaining content provider to prove (i) the broadband service provi…
An evaluation of the quality of impact assessment in the European Union with lessons for the US and the EU
Governments throughout the world are requiring greater use of economic analysis as a way of informing policy decisions. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of impact assessment in the European Union, using US assessments as a benchmark. We find that recent EU impact assessments include more economic information than they did in the past, although important items are still missing. We also provide evidence that the quality of E…
Has Economic Analysis Improved Regulatory Decisions
In response to the increasing impact of regulation, several governments have introduced economic analysis as a way of trying to improve regulatory policy. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of government-supported economic analysis of regulation. We find that there is growing interest in the use of economic tools, such as benefit-cost analysis; however, the quality of analysis in the U.S. and European Union frequently fails to meet wi…
The economic significance of “insignificant” rules
We know relatively little about the economic effects of “insignificant” rules because they are not typically analyzed. Yet, these rules could be cumulatively important. We provide an economic analysis of one proposed rule to control hazardous air pollutants, which is not considered to be economically significant. This rule is of particular interest because it is one of the first in a long series of rules that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…
Information Markets: A New Way of Making Decisions
State And Federal Regulatory Reform: A Comparative Analysis
Policy Watch: Government Analysis of the Benefits and Costs of Regulation
Recently, Congress has shown a greater interest in assessing the economic impact of regulation. This interest was driven in part by estimates that federal regulation costs several hundred billion dollars annually. In 1996, Congress required the director of the Office of Management and Budget to provide estimates of the total annual benefits and costs of individual regulations. This essay reviews the increasing use of economic analysis in regulato…
Is There a Role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation?
Benefit-cost analysis can play an important role in legislative and regulatory policy debates on protecting and improving health, safety, and the natural environment. Although formal benefit-cost analysis should not be viewed as either necessary or sufficient for designing sensible public policy, it can provide an exceptionally useful framework for consistently organizing disparate information, and in this way, it can greatly improve the process …
Choosing among Fuels and Technologies for Cleaning up the Air
Heinz College paper
The political economy of environmental regulation: Towards a unifying framework
An Experimental Examination of Spot Markets for Electricity
Journal Article An Experimental Examination of Spot Markets for Electricity Get access Robert W. Hahn, Robert W. Hahn American Enterprise Institute, Washington D.C. and Carnegie Mellon University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Mark V. Van Boening Mark V. Van Boening University of Mississippi Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 100, Issue 40…
Economic Prescriptions for Environmental Problems: How the Patient Followed the Doctor's Orders
In this paper, I consider two tools which have received widespread support from the economics community: marketable permits and emission charges. Until the 1960s, these tools only existed on blackboards and in academic journals, as products of the fertile imaginations of academics. However, some countries have recently begun to explore using these tools as part of a broader strategy for managing environmental problems. This paper chronicles the e…
Promoting efficiency and equity through institutional design
Jobs and environmental quality: Some implications for instrument choice
Application of Market Mechanisms to Pollution
The authors indicate how science and social science can be combined to assess the range and effectiveness of policy alternatives available to environmental decision‐makers. They focus on cost‐effective regulatory alternatives to the Los Angeles particulate sulfate problem. Both sciences are applied to the relationship of emissions to pollution levels and environmental quality. They reject the notion that a simple reduction in emissions leads to a…
An assessment of the determination of energy needs: The case of nuclear power
Economic Prescriptions for Environmental Problems: How the Patient Followed the Doctor's Orders
In this paper, I consider two tools which have received widespread support from the economics community: marketable permits and emission charges. Until the 1960s, these tools only existed on blackboards and in academic journals, as products of the fertile imaginations of academics. However, some countries have recently begun to explore using these tools as part of a broader strategy for managing environmental problems. This paper chronicles the e…
An evaluation of the quality of impact assessment in the European Union with lessons for the US and the EU
Governments throughout the world are requiring greater use of economic analysis as a way of informing policy decisions. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of impact assessment in the European Union, using US assessments as a benchmark. We find that recent EU impact assessments include more economic information than they did in the past, although important items are still missing. We also provide evidence that the quality of E…
Has Economic Analysis Improved Regulatory Decisions
In response to the increasing impact of regulation, several governments have introduced economic analysis as a way of trying to improve regulatory policy. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of government-supported economic analysis of regulation. We find that there is growing interest in the use of economic tools, such as benefit-cost analysis; however, the quality of analysis in the U.S. and European Union frequently fails to meet wi…
The political economy of environmental regulation: Towards a unifying framework
Incorporating equity and justice concerns in regulation
US regulatory agencies have been encouraged to consider the equity and distributional impacts of regulations for decades. This paper examines the extent to which such analysis is done and provides recommendations for improving it. We analyze 189 regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) that monetize at least some benefits and costs prepared by a variety of agencies from October 2003 to January 2021. We find that only two RIAs calculated the net benefits…
The impact of economic regulation on growth: Survey and synthesis
This study provides a survey of research that uses cross‐country comparisons to examine the relationship between economic regulation and growth. Studies in the peer‐reviewed literature tend to rely on either World Bank or Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development measures of regulation. Those studies seem to reflect a consensus that entry regulation and anticompetitive product and labor market regulations are generally harmful to gro…
Promoting customer engagement: A new trend in utility regulation
This paper traces a new development in regulation that encourages utilities to engage more directly with their customers. We make four contributions: First, we perform a comprehensive analysis of how regulators are using customer engagement, and offer a simple model for understanding different customer engagement initiatives. Second, we review assessments of customer engagement. We find that there arenoquantitative, empirically robust assessments…
The economic significance of “insignificant” rules
We know relatively little about the economic effects of “insignificant” rules because they are not typically analyzed. Yet, these rules could be cumulatively important. We provide an economic analysis of one proposed rule to control hazardous air pollutants, which is not considered to be economically significant. This rule is of particular interest because it is one of the first in a long series of rules that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…
Policy Watch: Government Analysis of the Benefits and Costs of Regulation
Recently, Congress has shown a greater interest in assessing the economic impact of regulation. This interest was driven in part by estimates that federal regulation costs several hundred billion dollars annually. In 1996, Congress required the director of the Office of Management and Budget to provide estimates of the total annual benefits and costs of individual regulations. This essay reviews the increasing use of economic analysis in regulato…
An Experimental Examination of Spot Markets for Electricity
Journal Article An Experimental Examination of Spot Markets for Electricity Get access Robert W. Hahn, Robert W. Hahn American Enterprise Institute, Washington D.C. and Carnegie Mellon University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Mark V. Van Boening Mark V. Van Boening University of Mississippi Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 100, Issue 40…
Jobs and environmental quality: Some implications for instrument choice
Designing Smarter Regulation with Improved Benefit-Cost Analysis
Benefit-cost analysis is required for many regulatory decisions in the United States and in other countries. In this paper, I examine a standard textbook model that is used in benefit-cost analysis as it is actually applied to environmental policy and other areas of regulation. My primary objective is to suggest how including some key factors in the analysis could promote the development of smarter regulation.I begin by presenting a standard econ…
State And Federal Regulatory Reform: A Comparative Analysis
Choosing among Fuels and Technologies for Cleaning up the Air
Heinz College paper
Application of Market Mechanisms to Pollution
The authors indicate how science and social science can be combined to assess the range and effectiveness of policy alternatives available to environmental decision‐makers. They focus on cost‐effective regulatory alternatives to the Los Angeles particulate sulfate problem. Both sciences are applied to the relationship of emissions to pollution levels and environmental quality. They reject the notion that a simple reduction in emissions leads to a…
An assessment of the determination of energy needs: The case of nuclear power
Application of Market Mechanisms to Pollution
The authors indicate how science and social science can be combined to assess the range and effectiveness of policy alternatives available to environmental decision‐makers. They focus on cost‐effective regulatory alternatives to the Los Angeles particulate sulfate problem. Both sciences are applied to the relationship of emissions to pollution levels and environmental quality. They reject the notion that a simple reduction in emissions leads to a…
Jobs and environmental quality: Some implications for instrument choice
Promoting efficiency and equity through institutional design
Economic Prescriptions for Environmental Problems: How the Patient Followed the Doctor's Orders
In this paper, I consider two tools which have received widespread support from the economics community: marketable permits and emission charges. Until the 1960s, these tools only existed on blackboards and in academic journals, as products of the fertile imaginations of academics. However, some countries have recently begun to explore using these tools as part of a broader strategy for managing environmental problems. This paper chronicles the e…
The political economy of environmental regulation: Towards a unifying framework
An Experimental Examination of Spot Markets for Electricity
Journal Article An Experimental Examination of Spot Markets for Electricity Get access Robert W. Hahn, Robert W. Hahn American Enterprise Institute, Washington D.C. and Carnegie Mellon University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Mark V. Van Boening Mark V. Van Boening University of Mississippi Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 100, Issue 40…
Choosing among Fuels and Technologies for Cleaning up the Air
Heinz College paper
Is There a Role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation?
Benefit-cost analysis can play an important role in legislative and regulatory policy debates on protecting and improving health, safety, and the natural environment. Although formal benefit-cost analysis should not be viewed as either necessary or sufficient for designing sensible public policy, it can provide an exceptionally useful framework for consistently organizing disparate information, and in this way, it can greatly improve the process …
Policy Watch: Government Analysis of the Benefits and Costs of Regulation
Recently, Congress has shown a greater interest in assessing the economic impact of regulation. This interest was driven in part by estimates that federal regulation costs several hundred billion dollars annually. In 1996, Congress required the director of the Office of Management and Budget to provide estimates of the total annual benefits and costs of individual regulations. This essay reviews the increasing use of economic analysis in regulato…
State And Federal Regulatory Reform: A Comparative Analysis
Information Markets: A New Way of Making Decisions
The economic significance of “insignificant” rules
We know relatively little about the economic effects of “insignificant” rules because they are not typically analyzed. Yet, these rules could be cumulatively important. We provide an economic analysis of one proposed rule to control hazardous air pollutants, which is not considered to be economically significant. This rule is of particular interest because it is one of the first in a long series of rules that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…
An evaluation of the quality of impact assessment in the European Union with lessons for the US and the EU
Governments throughout the world are requiring greater use of economic analysis as a way of informing policy decisions. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of impact assessment in the European Union, using US assessments as a benchmark. We find that recent EU impact assessments include more economic information than they did in the past, although important items are still missing. We also provide evidence that the quality of E…
Has Economic Analysis Improved Regulatory Decisions
In response to the increasing impact of regulation, several governments have introduced economic analysis as a way of trying to improve regulatory policy. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of government-supported economic analysis of regulation. We find that there is growing interest in the use of economic tools, such as benefit-cost analysis; however, the quality of analysis in the U.S. and European Union frequently fails to meet wi…
Designing Smarter Regulation with Improved Benefit-Cost Analysis
Benefit-cost analysis is required for many regulatory decisions in the United States and in other countries. In this paper, I examine a standard textbook model that is used in benefit-cost analysis as it is actually applied to environmental policy and other areas of regulation. My primary objective is to suggest how including some key factors in the analysis could promote the development of smarter regulation.I begin by presenting a standard econ…
Addressing the next wave of Internet regulation: Toward a workable principle for nondiscrimination
The ultimate formulation of the Federal Communications Commission's “nondiscrimination on the Internet” principle could have a significant impact on economic welfare and on innovation. In this article, we explain the economics of discrimination as it applies to the Internet, and we offer a new approach for identifying anticompetitive discrimination. Our proposal would require a complaining content provider to prove (i) the broadband service provi…
Building upon foundations for evidence-based policy
Can government culture evolve under a promising new law?
Promoting customer engagement: A new trend in utility regulation
This paper traces a new development in regulation that encourages utilities to engage more directly with their customers. We make four contributions: First, we perform a comprehensive analysis of how regulators are using customer engagement, and offer a simple model for understanding different customer engagement initiatives. Second, we review assessments of customer engagement. We find that there arenoquantitative, empirically robust assessments…
Thales, the “Pythagorean Theorem”, and Technological Context
De récents débats sur le « théorème de Pythagore » suggèrent que Pythagore n’aurait rien à voir avec celui-ci, mais, en procédant à l’ingénierie inverse du projet, à partir du Timée de Platon (53c), en construisant le cosmos à partir de triangles rectangles, et en remontant en arrière, nous pourrons peut-être entrevoir une nouvelle approche qui relie la géométrie et la métaphysique du triangle rectangle, et par conséquent Pythagore, au théorème, …
The impact of economic regulation on growth: Survey and synthesis
This study provides a survey of research that uses cross‐country comparisons to examine the relationship between economic regulation and growth. Studies in the peer‐reviewed literature tend to rely on either World Bank or Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development measures of regulation. Those studies seem to reflect a consensus that entry regulation and anticompetitive product and labor market regulations are generally harmful to gro…
Incorporating equity and justice concerns in regulation
US regulatory agencies have been encouraged to consider the equity and distributional impacts of regulations for decades. This paper examines the extent to which such analysis is done and provides recommendations for improving it. We analyze 189 regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) that monetize at least some benefits and costs prepared by a variety of agencies from October 2003 to January 2021. We find that only two RIAs calculated the net benefits…
How Well Do Governments Assess the Distributional Impacts of Policy
Policy makers are showing increased interest in understanding the impacts of public policies on subgroups of the population. We provide the first cross‐regional comparison of distributional analyses by examining 907 benefit–cost analyses (BCAs) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union from 2016 through 2020. In these regions, we find almost no quantification of net benefits for a population subgroup (2 US BCAs, 0 UK BCAs, …
Economics (19 works) · Business (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Public economics (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Climate Change Policy and Economics (9 works) · Engineering (7 works) · Economic and Environmental Valuation (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works)