James Broughel

Arlington

Contributor at Forbes

Senior Fellow at The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)

Economist writing about regulation.

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Articles

Economic Cost Estimates Need a Makeover

2 weeks ago | tulipmania.substack.com | James Broughel

The time value of money (TVM) is one of the first ideas any economics or finance student learns. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, because today’s dollar can be invested and earn a return. Yet for all its acclaim in textbooks and MBA programs, the TVM shows up far too rarely in cost estimates circulated by economists.
You Can’t Take It With You

2 weeks ago | tulipmania.substack.com | James Broughel

In policy analysis economists routinely translate human injuries and deaths into dollars so that these can be weighed against the costs of regulation. This exercise involves placing a monetary value on life. Converting both benefits and costs into the same units gives policymakers a common yardstick for judging trade-offs among otherwise incomparable goods. The controversy is not whether we need to place a value on life, but how we choose one.
Tulip Mania

3 weeks ago | tulipmania.substack.com | James Broughel

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Time Preference as a Dynamic Market Failure

3 weeks ago | tulipmania.substack.com | James Broughel

A market failure occurs when there are unexploited gains from trade, making a Pareto improvement possible, meaning someone can be made better off without making anyone else worse off. Economists typically focus on market failures that manifest in the “static” present. For example, information asymmetries occur when one party in a transaction has more or better information than the other, leading to suboptimal trades.
House Reconciliation Bill Takes Aim At Regulation, But Needs Fixes

1 month ago | cei.org | James Broughel

Congressional Republicans are moving one step closer to achieving their long-sought goal of overhauling the regulatory state. Tucked into the House Judiciary Committee’s section of the GOP’s reconciliation bill are two clever reforms. One creates automatic sunsets for federal rules and another incorporates a version of the REINS Act, which would require congressional approval for major regulations. These provisions attempt to strengthen legislative control over the administrative state.
House Reconciliation Bill Takes Aim At Regulation, But Needs Fixes

1 month ago | forbes.com | James Broughel

Congressional Republicans are moving one step closer to achieving their long-sought goal of overhauling the regulatory state. Tucked into the House Judiciary Committee’s section of the GOP’s reconciliation bill are two clever reforms. One creates automatic sunsets for federal rules and another incorporates a version of the REINS Act, which would require congressional approval for major regulations. These provisions attempt to strengthen legislative control over the administrative state.
Why I Am a Conservative

1 month ago | tulipmania.substack.com | James Broughel

I’ve long been drawn to libertarian and classical liberal ideas, especially when it comes to specific policy issues. Arguments about limiting the scope of government, defending private property, and encouraging a free marketplace resonate with me. Yet for all my sympathies with libertarian philosophy and politics, I ultimately consider myself a conservative, not a libertarian or classical liberal. Why is that?
Pumping the brakes on permitting reform in Michigan: CEI report

1 month ago | cei.org | James Broughel

Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a new report on Michigan’s recent history of environmental permitting policies. “Michigan has undergone several attempts in recent years to improve its environmental permitting system, such as creating independent permit review panels in 2018, creating an online permitting dashboard, and implementing a fee refund system,” said report author and CEI Senior Fellow James Broughel. “Unfortunately, Michigan Gov.
Pumping the Brakes on Reform

1 month ago | cei.org | James Broughel

This report examines Michigan’s recent permitting reforms, highlighting how some productive efforts to enhance accountability and efficiency have largely stalled. While the state took steps to introduce independent oversight through bodies like the Environmental Permit Review Commission (EPRC) and the Environmental Rules Review Committee (ERRC), subsequent executive actions dismantled these panels, reverting authority back to the very agency they were meant to oversee.
Time to shut down IRIS—for good - Competitive Enterprise Institute

1 month ago | cei.org | James Broughel

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly preparing to eliminate its Office of Research and Development, which houses the controversial Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). According to a recent New York Times report, this action could lead to more than a thousand layoffs and a fundamental reshaping of how EPA conducts scientific assessments.