IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jbcoan/v16y2025is1p22-43_3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reorganization of Economists at the FCC: The Role of Decision Rights, Control Systems, and Culture

Author

Listed:
  • Ellig, Jerry
  • Leighton, Wayne
  • McHenry, Giulia

Abstract

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established a separate Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) in December 2018 to promote more consistent quality and use of economic analysis in its decisions. The agency’s reorganization concentrated economists who previously were dispersed across different offices and bureaus. This paper describes key organizational choices that were made in the period preceding and soon after the establishment of OEA. We show how these decisions – which relate to decision rights, formal control systems, and informal practices and procedures – are consistent with organizational theory and practice. We also draw lessons from the FCC’s experience that may apply to those tasked with managing economists and other specialized or technical staff in large and/or complex organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellig, Jerry & Leighton, Wayne & McHenry, Giulia, 2025. "Reorganization of Economists at the FCC: The Role of Decision Rights, Control Systems, and Culture," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(S1), pages 22-43, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jbcoan:v:16:y:2025:i:s1:p:22-43_3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S219458882400037X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jbcoan:v:16:y:2025:i:s1:p:22-43_3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/bca .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.