The Economics of Attribute-Based Regulation: Theory and Evidence from Fuel Economy Standards

被引:47
作者
Ito, Koichiro [1 ,2 ]
Sallee, James M. [2 ,3 ]
机构
[1] Univ Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
[2] NBER, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[3] Univ Calif Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
关键词
COSTS;
D O I
10.1162/REST_a_00704
中图分类号
F [经济];
学科分类号
02 ;
摘要
We study attribute-based regulations, under which regulatory compliance of a firm, product, or individual depends on a secondary attribute that is not the intended target of the regulation. We develop a theoretical model of the welfare consequences of attribute basing, including its distortionary costs and potential benefits. We then quantify these welfare consequences using quasi-experimental evidence from weight-based fuel economy regulations.We use bunching analysis to showthat vehicle weight increased in response to regulation. We also leverage a policy change and develop a new method for analyzing double-notched policies to compare the costs and benefits of a specific attribute-based policy.
引用
收藏
页码:319 / 336
页数:18
相关论文
共 16 条