The Sense Behind the Noise on Regulation

Second, the report observes that the current figures — for quantifying both benefits and costs — depend on assumptions that might turn out not to be true. It strikes just the right note when it states that the report was issued after a change in administration, and that its figures do “not imply an endorsement by the current Administration of all of the assumptions made and analyses conducted at the time these regulations were finalized.”

Third, the report draws attention to uncertainties. One example: It’s not easy to turn the protection of homeland security, or of personal privacy, into monetary equivalents.

Another example: Many of the reported benefits come from reducing a single air pollutant: particulate matter. But scientists disagree about the magnitude of those benefits. Some forms of particulate matter may have more serious adverse effects than others. If some forms are significantly less toxic than others, then the benefits of reductions will be lower than currently expected.

In accordance with tradition, the new cost-benefit report offers recommendations for reform. Importantly, the Trump administration embraces the commitment to cost-benefit analysis as “the primary analytical tool to inform specific regulatory choices.” Since that commitment was initially imposed by President Ronald Reagan, it’s not exactly a big surprise that a Republican successor would reaffirm it. Nonetheless, it’s excellent news.

At least as much as any of its predecessors, the report emphasizes the importance of deregulation, including the elimination of rules that are “outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective,” or that impose “costs that exceed benefits.” It also draws attention to the need to reassess past regulations, with clear emphasis on their actual (as opposed to merely anticipated) effects.

Here, as well, there is a bipartisan consensus. We need far more evidence on the concrete effects of existing regulations — whether they are imposing high costs, whether they can be streamlined, whether they are delivering big benefits.

There’s a lot of chest-thumping on regulation, both by those who act as if it’s the most serious problem facing the United States today, and by those who have never seen a health or safety regulation they don’t like. This week’s sober, fair-minded report is a reminder that everything turns on the numbers — and that political dogmas mask all of the serious questions.

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Cass R. Sunstein is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is the editor of “Can It Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America” and a co-author of “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness.”