FCC Working Paper Says it Matters How Economists Are Structured in a Regulatory Agency
A working paper by the FCC, its first since 2012, looks at the organization of economists in a regulatory agency and concludes that structure does make a difference. The paper builds on a working group report that led to the…
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creation of the new Office of Economics and Analytics, the FCC said. “The way professionals are organized does indeed affect the quality of their intellectual output,” the paper concludes: “As prior case study research suggests, functional organization of economists is associated with higher-quality economic analysis of regulations.” The paper also said that functional organization “does not necessarily diminish the influence of specialists on decisions by allowing others to ignore the information they produce, and it may even augment their influence.” The paper says the questions raised are a “topic ripe for further research.” The paper was written by Jerry Ellig, former chief economist at the FCC, now at George Washington University, and Catherine Konieczny, an economist at the Coast Guard Standards Evaluation and Analysis Division and a former FCC intern. Economic studies at the FCC should be subject to peer review, tweeted Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “This is what good government requires. But it is not what the agency is doing today.” Chairman Ajit Pai tweeted that the office “was to encourage economists and other specialists to think big (and write accordingly).”