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Nobel Laureates

Revealed Bureaucratic Preference: Priorities of the Consumer Product Safety Commission


Volume: Volume 19, No. 1

Issue: Spring 1988

Pages: pp. 102-113

Authors: Lacy Glenn Thomas

Title: Revealed Bureaucratic Preference: Priorities of the Consumer Product Safety Commission

Abstract: In June 1977, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced priorities for those projects to be executed during subsequent fiscal years. I use conditional logit techniques to analyze random orderings to estimate the Commission's preference functions among projects. I show that the Commission overselects both projects with large safety benefits but even larger consumer costs and projects that require mandatory standards.


JEL Classification

Consumer Protection (9213)
Social Choice Studies: Voting, Committees, etc. (0252)