This study provides a survey of research that uses cross-country comparisons to examine how economic regulation affects growth. Studies in the peer-reviewed literature tend to rely on either World Bank or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development measures of regulation. Those studies seem to reflect a consensus that entry regulation and anticompetitive product and labor market regulations are generally harmful to growth. The results from this cross-country research, taken in conjunction with economic theory as well as other countryspecific studies of economic regulation, support the hypothesis that economic regulation tends to reduce welfare in competitive markets. Given the continued use of certain types of economic regulation, the findings may offer important lessons for policymakers.
Robert Hahn is a senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute and a visiting professor and former director of economics at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. He is also a senior policy scholar at the Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy. Bob has served on the faculties of Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, and has also held senior appointments at AEI and Brookings.
Bob is currently conducting several economics experiments aimed at improving productivity, and promoting growth and sustainability. He also continues to do research on government regulation, Internet policy, and understanding the benefits of breakthrough innovations. He served as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. Many of the findings of that Commission were recently enacted into law as The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act.
