Regulation And The Macroeconomy

This article uses the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations to investigate the empirical relationship between federal regulation and macroeconomic performance in the U.S. The analysis uses an aggregate production framework to study the co-movement of output and the factors of production that results from regulation. The use of cointegration methodology overcomes some shortcomings of traditional techniques. The results suggest that regulation generally is negatively related to aggregate economic performance in both the short run and the long run. Some specific areas of regulation are also found to have important long-run effects, some positive and some negative.