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Management-Based Regulation: Using Private-Sector Management to Achieve Public Goals
Title: Management-Based Regulation: Using Private-Sector Management to Achieve Public Goals
Date: December 2001
Author: Cary Coglianese and David Lazer
Institution: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Bibliographic Entry: Gary Coglianese and David Lazer, “Management Based Regulation: Using Private-Sector Management to Achieve Public Goals” (Faculty Research Working Paper Series, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2001).
Electronic Link: http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP01-047/$File/rwp01_047_coglianese.pdf
Key Words: management-based regulatory system, private sector management, technology-based management, performance-based management
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
In order to achieve maximum efficiency, regulation often tries to emulate behavior of the private sector when trying to implement public goals. In this faculty working paper, the authors assert that a management-based regulatory system is best for the government in providing incentives to the regulated parties to achieve socially desired goals. These strategies shift the center of decision making from the regulator to regulated firms by requiring firms to do their own planning and decision making about how to achieve goals. The areas of food safety, occupational heath, environmental protection and other regulatory areas have currently implemented the management-based regulatory approach.
Four sections make up this report in an effort to illustrate the benefits of a management-based approach, including a series of graphs at the end. These include (1) a review of the accepted limitations of conventional regulatory strategies and development framework to decide if the management based system is better than the technology or performance based, (2) what enforcement strategies are needed to make management based regulation an effective regulatory approach, (3) show examples of how government is implementing these in food safety, chemical accident avoidance, and pollution prevention, and (4) assess the promise of management-based regulation and highlight key issues involved in determining how I can best be deployed as an effective government strategy.
Name of Researcher: Julie Curry
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: October 4, 2007