The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis will hold its annual meeting in-person on March 9-10 and online on March 13-14. As in the past, there are many sessions pertaining to the use of benefit-cost analysis in regulation and regulatory decision making that those who study administrative law will find useful. Those include:

Regulatory Policy in the United States: The Year in Review and What Lies Ahead

In this roundtable, regulatory scholars and former U.S. regulatory officials will review the past year in regulation in the United States, and explore emerging regulatory themes, addressing such questions as: What were the most significant regulatory activities during President Biden’s second year in office? What noteworthy changes in regulatory practices are emerging in response to Biden’s early commitments to modernize regulation? Are we likely to see an increased role for equity in regulatory impact analysis? As the Covid-19 emergency comes to an end, what will become of the regulatory restrictions and waivers that were tied to the pandemic? Are there lessons to be learned from them? What impact might judicial decisions, including the Supreme Court’s reliance on the “major questions” doctrine, have on regulatory analysis and practice? 

Presenters:

• Caroline Cecot, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University
• Stuart Shapiro, Rutgers University
• Kevin Bromberg, formerly with the Office of Advocacy, Assistant Chief Counsel for Environmental Policy 
• Mark Febrizio, George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center
• Susan Dudley (chair), George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, Former OIRA Administrator

Independent Regulatory Authorities.

This roundtable of experts representing the U.S., Europe, and Latin America will examine what it means to be an independent regulator in their respective jurisdictions, how regulators are accountable to the electorate, and what role benefit-cost analysis plays in developing and evaluating regulations.

Presenters:

• Christopher Carrigan, the George Washington University
• Dunne Joseph, Head of the EU Parliament in the U.S.
• Gabriela Borgess Silva,  George Mason University
• Mary Sullivan, the George Washington University, Former economist, Federal Trade Commission.
• Susan Dudley (chair), George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, Former OIRA Administrator

Plenary Addresses 

The conference will feature important plenary sessions by Nobel Laureate James Heckman, Former DHHS Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation Sherry Glide, co-founder of the Toulouse School of Economics and president of the European Association of Environmental Economists, Christian Gollier, environmental economist Thomas Sterner, and transportation and environmental economist, Jorge Alexander Bonilla.

Other Presentations Relevant to Administrative Law

• Just Regulation: Improving Distributional Analysis in Agency Rulemaking.  Richard Revesz, New York University School of Law; Burçin Ünel, Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law
• “Co-Benefits, Countervailing Risks, and Cost-Benefit Analysis”. Jonathan Wiener, Duke University; John Graham,Indiana University
• Dynamic Baselines.  Dale Whittington, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Lisa Robinson, Harvard University
• Economists and Neutrality in the Federal Government. Stuart Shapiro, Rutgers University 
• Applying the Value of Statistical Life for Children in Regulatory Analysis.  Alex Moscoso, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission; Jose Tejeda, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission; Mark Bailey, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Valuing mortality risk reductions in Canada: An updated meta-analysis and policy guidance.  Tsegaye Ginbo,University of Alberta; Vic Adamowicz,University of Alberta; Patrick Lloyd-Smith,University of Saskatchewan
• Presidential Use of Regulatory Suspensions. Mark Febrizio, George Washington University

Other Roundtables Relevant to Administrative Law

Best Practices to Address Equitable and Just Resilience Amid Increasingly Complex Climate Risks

• Jennifer Helgeson (chair), National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Jia Li, World Bank;
• Elisabeth Gilmore, Carleton University;
• Margaret Walls, Resources for the Future;
• Bramka Jafino, World Bank;
• Benjamin Preston (TBC), OSTP;

Ethics and Benefit-Cost Analysis

• Lisa Robinson (Chair) Harvard University
• David Canning, Harvard University;
• Maddalena Ferranna, University of Southern California;
• Marc Fleurbaey, Paris School of Economics;
• James Hammitt, Harvard University;
• Christian Krekel, London School of Economics;
• Ole Norheim, University of Bergen;

To register for the conference or to get more information, you can go to the Society’s website here.