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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ito, Koichiro; Sallee, James M.
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00704
• 发表日期: 2018-05
• 页码: 319-336
• 关键词: costs

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.