Welcome to Our Research Archive
Search and filter by content type, issue area, author, and keyword
September 27, 2024
The Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics
Today I’m traveling to the 2024 Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics Workshop for Regulators. The 2024 IRLE Workshop marks not only the 18th annual gathering of regulators and scholars, but also the 20th anniversary of IRLE’s founding. Over the past two decades, this workshop has evolved into a valued educational and translational research resource for regulators…
September 23, 2024
Australia’s Misinformation Police
A few days ago Australian legislators introduced a bill focused on “Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation.” The Australian Parliament explains the purpose of the bill: The bill proposes to amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and would make consequential amendments to other Acts to establish a new framework to safeguard against serious harms caused by misinformation or…
September 23, 2024
The National Science Foundation: Juggling Basic Research and Critical Technologies
Several weeks ago, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman Panchanathan announced that the new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) would focus on four technology areas over the next three years, a substantial reduction from the 10 technology areas mandated by Congress in the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The agency cited budget constraints…
September 23, 2024
Response To The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
SummaryEnergy “savings” as asserted by DoE in its notional CRE Standards as analyzed in theNotice of Data Availability and Request for Comment are illegitimate as a benefit of any suchStandards because they shunt aside the CRE performance benefits attendant upon the higherenergy use currently observed. CRE consumers, after all, are not fools. In any event,…
September 18, 2024
Japan Offers a Glimpse into the Future
I’m writing this week from Tokyo, where I am participating in a fascinating symposium on “Energy Security and Global Warming in an Increasingly Uncertain International Climate,” sponsored by the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSSP) and the Institute of Energy Economic, Japan (IEEJ).(1) My contributions to the symposium focused on global rates…
September 13, 2024
The Politics of American Energy Policy
In the U.S. presidential debate earlier this week, the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris offered a strong endorsement of not just the technology of fracking but also of fossil fuels: I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking. My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources…
September 11, 2024
The Extinction of Experience: A Book Event with Christine Rosen
September 10, 2024
Jawboning: Weighing Government Influence over Online Platforms’ Censorship Practices
Event Summary On September 10, AEI’s Shane Tews moderated a panel exploring the legal implications of government involvement in free speech. Following a showing of the Federalist Society’s short film JAWBONED: Miss Information vs. Free Speech, the panel unpacked the background of the differences between Murthy v. Missouri and the National Rifle Association v. Vullo…
September 10, 2024
The Precautionary Principle, Safety Regulation, and AI: This Time, It Really Is Different
Key Points Read the pdf. The precautionary principle (PP) holds that in the face of scientific uncertainty about the outcomes of deploying a new technology, and especially when serious or irreversible damage could occur, a cautionary approach is justified—“better to be safe than sorry”—which necessitates strictly regulating the technology’s release. The PP has long been…
September 6, 2024
Social and Physical Theories of Technological Stagnation
Among those who believe that technological change has stagnated, there are two broad categories. One social/institutional theory of stagnation, often associated with Peter Thiel, claims that the world has entered a period of technological stagnation due to avoidable social and institutional factors. Thiel and others in this camp argue that societies have chosen safety, regulation,…