Wall Street Journal
January 30, 2017
Financial markets and the White House are betting that a rollback of federal regulations can provide a significant boost to the U.S. economy. Research suggests that’s no sure thing.
The volume of federal regulation has grown dramatically over recent decades and Donald Trump says that’s holding back growth. But estimates of the costs and benefits of the expanding regulatory state are so disparate, it’s nearly impossible to pin down the payoff for Mr. Trump’s plan to cut back red tape.
Conclusions vary so much not only because of the differing political instincts of researchers, but because studying regulations piece by piece produces different estimates than trying to gauge the impact of all regulations at once.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order to cut the number of federal regulations, requiring that two old regulations be eliminated for every new one created. Here’s a primer on the regulatory state and its effect on the economy.
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