New Research on Regulations, Housing Opportunity, Trade, and Immigration

A Snapshot of Kansas Regulation in 2019

James Broughel | State Snapshots

From the snapshot: "State RegData also reveals that the 2019 KAR [Kansas Administrative Regulations] contains 70,969 restrictions and 3.2 million words. It would take an individual about 180 hours—or about four and a half weeks—to read the entire KAR. That’s assuming the reader spends 40 hours per week reading and reads at a rate of 300 words per minute. By comparison, there are 1.09 million additional restrictions in the federal code. Individuals and businesses in Kansas must navigate these different layers of restrictions to remain in compliance.”

Expanding Housing Opportunity in an Environment of Exclusionary Regulation

Salim Furth | Congressional Testimony

From the testimony: "Although restrictions on housing production do not originate with the federal government, federal policymakers ought to be concerned about them. For one thing, local restrictions have become a major macroeconomic concern. For another, federally supported housing has to abide by these rules as well. When land is artificially scarce, federally funded housing construction and rent support are more expensive and less effective.”

How the United States Should Respond to China’s Intellectual Property Practices

Daniel Griswold and Donald J. Boudreaux | Policy Brief

From the brief: "The problem of IP theft by China is real but its magnitude should not be exaggerated. The Trump administration’s response to the problem has been both excessive and poorly designed to lead to a solution. A more appropriate response as outlined in this brief would be to continue to exert pressure on the Chinese government in the most direct manner possible to reform its practices in a market direction while imposing as few restrictions as possible upon Americans wishing to purchase Chinese goods. The alternative is a continued cycle of broad, arbitrary, and self-damaging tariffs that impose escalating costs on the US economy without addressing the underlying issues with China.”

QuantGov: An Overview

Patrick McLaughlin, Oliver Sherouse, and Stephen Strosko | QuantGov Overview

From the overview: "The architecture used to create QuantGov has been designed to be modular, flexible, and extensible, targeting both the programmer and the academic. We want a system where it is not only possible but straightforward to add in or swap out either collections of text or machine learning algorithms to create new and innovative projects. To encourage others to build on our system, we have decided to adopt an open-source strategy. In addition, our code is inspired by the Unix philosophy, which encourages the writing of small programs that work together.”

Attracting Global Talent to Ensure America Is First in Innovation

Daniel Griswold and Jack Salmon | Policy Brief

From the brief: "H-1B visas have played a fundamental role in driving innovation and business growth in the United States since the program’s inception in 1990. The number of annual visa allocations is currently fixed at an arbitrarily low number. A market-based escalator system of visa allocations would more closely match demand for high skilled workers with the supply of available visas. The increased opportunities for international students to apply for COS and enroll in the H-1B lottery would slow the flow of US trained professionals leaving the country. These reforms would ensure that the United States continues to be the global leader for international talent, business growth, and entrepreneurial innovation.”

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