|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alison Cullen,
SRA President
Jonathan Wiener,
SRA Past-President
Phil Sharp,
RFF President
Mark Cohen,
RFF Vice-President
for Research
Lisa Robinson,
Conference Chair
Matthew Adler
Alberto Alemanno
Laina Bush
James Hammitt
Sandra Hoffmann
Amber Jessup
Alan Krupnick
Dominic Mancini
Stuart Shapiro
Jun Zhuang |
On June 22-23, 2009, the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and Resources for the Future (RFF) sponsored the "New Ideas for Risk Regulation" conference. The results of this event are provided below, including:
-
-
-
A Conference Summary is now available. The December 6-9, 2009 SRA Annual Meeting (in Baltimore, Maryland) will also feature related sessions. Articles based on selected conference presentations will be published in SRA’s journal, Risk Analysis in 2010.
Conference Overview
The start of a new Administration opens a new chapter in U.S. regulatory policy. Early actions by President Obama, such as requesting ideas for reforming regulatory review, signal a strong interest in innovation.
The “New Ideas for Risk Regulation” conference, sponsored by the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and Resources for the Future (RFF), was designed to inform efforts to improve regulatory development and analysis and to foster creative thinking on these issues. It focuses on the regulation of environmental, health, safety, and security risks, and considers the national and international role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in regulatory review and assessment. |
|
The topics addressed include improving OIRA’s role in encouraging better regulation domestically and internationally, enhancing the constructive use of risk assessment and benefit-cost analyses in informing decisions, and addressing several related challenges. Speakers included current and former senior government officials as well as leading scholars with expertise in a wide array of related issues.
Detailed Program
The detailed conference program is available. The program includes links to the websites for individual speakers, as well as brief summaries of the topics discussed by each panel.
Video, Audio, Presentations, and Papers
| |
|
Introduction
Panel One
OIRA Domestically: Towards Better Regulation
The advent of a new Administration provides an opportunity to reconsider the regulatory development process. This panel will focus on OIRA’s role in prompting and reviewing domestic regulations as well as its requirements for regulatory analysis, reflecting the views of those who have worked within OIRA, interacted with OIRA as agency representatives, and studied OIRA’s legal authority and effectiveness.
|
|
|
Audio: Introduction and Panel One
Panel Two
OIRA Internationally: Towards Global Cooperation
As nations work to improve the quality of their policies and legislation, there are substantial opportunities for mutual learning. This panel will explore the successes and failures of U.S., E.U., and other regulatory reform efforts, highlight opportunities to learn from other’s policy innovations, and examine options for increasing international cooperation in evaluating and improving the quality of each nation’s policies and laws.
|
|
|
|
|
Audio: Lunch Speaker
Panel Three
Regulating Highly Uncertain and Potentially Catastrophic Risks
Risks that are highly uncertain but potentially catastrophic, such as climate change, terrorism, or natural disasters, provide special challenges for regulators. Difficult issues include determining the effects of regulations on the likelihood of catastrophic outcomes, the ways in which government agencies should address the associated fear, the extent to which regulations should be precautionary, and the appropriate roles of the public and private sectors.
|
|
|
Audio: Panel Three
Panel Four
Integrating Risk Assessment and Risk Management
Better integration of science, economics, and decisionmaking has long been a significant concern in regulation. Most recently, the National Research Council report, Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment, made several recommendations for changing how these issues are addressed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These recommendations, as well as preceding proposals and newer ideas for fundamental change, have significant implications for how environmental and numerous other risks are assessed and regulated.
|
|
|
Audio: Panel Four
Introduction
Panel Five
What does Benefit-Cost Analysis Tell Us? Positive and Normative Justifications
While benefit-cost analysis has long been the dominant method for assessing regulatory impacts, its focus on individual preferences and on monetary valuation of nonmarket benefits has been the subject of some debate. This panel will discuss the role of benefit-cost analysis as a positive or normative framework. It will also consider alternatives to benefit-cost analysis, including cost-effectiveness analysis and utilitarian decision analysis, as aids to decision-making.
|
|
|
Audio: Introduction and Panel Five
Panel Six
Beyond Efficiency: Incorporating Equity in Regulatory Analysis
While Federal agencies have been required to consider the distributional impacts of their regulatory actions for many years, these effects are not subject to the same sort of rigorous assessment as economic efficiency. This session will discuss how to improve consideration of distributional impacts and equity.
|
|
|
|
|
Audio: Lunch Speaker
Panel Seven
Do We Know What We Prefer? Implications of Behavioral Economics for Research on Preferences
Nonmarket benefits of regulatory policies, including reduced risks to human health and the environment, are often valued using stated or revealed preference methods. However, work by behavioral economists has challenged the assumptions that underlie these methods, suggesting that individual preferences often diverge from the standard tenets of rational choice. This panel will consider diverse perspectives on this problem.
|
|
|
Audio: Panel Seven
Panel Eight
Concluding Roundtable: The Future of Regulatory Oversight
|
|
|
|
The Society for Risk Analysis and Resources for the Future would like to thank the following for providing additional support for this conference:
- Harvard Center for Risk Analysis
- Industrial Economics, Incorporated
- Mercatus Center, George Mason University
- Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services
- Regulatory Checkbook
- Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis
- SRA National Capital Area Chapter
- Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security
- U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security
|
|
|
|
|