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Regulation and Poverty: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship between the Incidence of Federal Regulation and the Occurrence of Poverty across the States

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Listed:
  • Chambers, Dustin
  • McLaughlin, Patrick
  • Stanley, Laura

    (Mercury Publication)

Abstract

Regulatory accumulation increases production costs, slows innovation, and hinders economic growth (Coffey, McLaughlin, and Peretto 2016; Dawson and Seater 2013). This study will investigate the degree to which these consequences of regulation are determi

Suggested Citation

  • Chambers, Dustin & McLaughlin, Patrick & Stanley, Laura, 2018. "Regulation and Poverty: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship between the Incidence of Federal Regulation and the Occurrence of Poverty across the States," Working Papers 07672, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ajw:wpaper:07672
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Meng, Xin & Gregory, Robert & Wang, Youjuan, 2005. "Poverty, inequality, and growth in urban China, 1986-2000," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 710-729, December.
    2. Nicholas Apergis & Oguzhan Dincer & James E. Payne, 2011. "On the dynamics of poverty and income inequality in US states," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(2), pages 132-143, May.
    3. Rati Ram, 2007. "Roles of income and equality in poverty reduction: recent cross-country evidence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(7), pages 919-926.
    4. Shatakshee Dhongde, 2004. "Decomposing Spatial Differences in Poverty in India," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-53, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Bentley Coffey & Patrick McLaughlin & Pietro Peretto, 2020. "The Cumulative Cost of Regulations," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 38, pages 1-21, October.
    6. Chambers, Dustin & Wu, Ying & Yao, Hong, 2008. "The impact of past growth on poverty in Chinese provinces," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 348-357, August.
    7. Christopher Johnson & John Formby & Hoseong Kim, 2011. "Economic growth and poverty: a tale of two decades," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(28), pages 4277-4288.
    8. John Dawson & John Seater, 2013. "Federal regulation and aggregate economic growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 137-177, June.
    9. Dustin Chambers & Shatakshee Dhongde, 2011. "A Non‐Parametric Measure Of Poverty Elasticity," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(4), pages 683-703, December.
    10. Chambers, Dustin & Munemo, Jonathan, 2017. "The Impact of Regulations and Institutional Quality on Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 07629, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    11. Mark W. Frank, 2009. "Inequality And Growth In The United States: Evidence From A New State‐Level Panel Of Income Inequality Measures," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 55-68, January.
    12. Adams, Richard Jr., 2004. "Economic Growth, Inequality and Poverty: Estimating the Growth Elasticity of Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 1989-2014, December.
    13. Morris M. Kleiner & Alan B. Krueger, 2013. "Analyzing the Extent and Influence of Occupational Licensing on the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(S1), pages 173-202.
    14. Datt, Gaurav & Ravallion, Martin, 1992. "Growth and redistribution components of changes in poverty measures : A decomposition with applications to Brazil and India in the 1980s," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 275-295, April.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti & Juan A. Lafuente-Luengo & Belén Gill-de-Albornoz, 2026. "Poverty Regulation and Poverty Dynamics: A Textual and Econometric Analysis," Working papers 1041, Banque de France.
    3. Nicholas Reinarts & Vitor Melo, 2023. "ADA to Ph.D.? The Americans with disabilities act and post-secondary educational attainment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(3), pages 421-432, December.
    4. Stoyanov, Andrey & Zubanov, Nick, 2025. "Exposure to Regulation and Income Inequality in Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the U.S. over the Past Half-Century," IZA Discussion Papers 17820, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Broughel, James & Chambers, Dustin, 2021. "Federal Regulation and Mortality in the 50 States," Working Papers 10289, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    6. Godwin Olasehinde-Williams & Ajide Folorunsho, 2025. "Environmental policy, green trade and sustainable development in Europe: New perspective on the Porter hypothesis," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(3), pages 1443-1461, May.
    7. Michael Park & Shuping Wu & Russell J. Funk, 2025. "Regulation and Innovation Revisited: How Restrictive Environments Can Promote Destabilizing New Technologies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 240-260, January.
    8. Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti & Javier Quintana & Isabel Soler & Rok Spruk, 2024. "The heterogenous effects of a higher volume of regulation: evidence from more than 200k Spanish norms," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 137-153, June.
    9. Choudhury, Sanchari, 2023. "The causal effect of regulation on income inequality across the U.S. states," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    10. Chambers, Dustin & O'Reilly, Colin, 2022. "Regulation and income inequality in the United States," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Dustin Chambers & Colin O’Reilly, 2022. "The economic theory of regulation and inequality," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(1), pages 63-78, October.
    12. Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti & Javier Quintana & Isabel Soler & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Sector-level economic effects of regulatory complexity: evidence from Spain," Working Papers 2312, Banco de España.
    13. de Lucio, Juan & Mora-Sanguinetti, Juan S., 2022. "Drafting “better regulation”: The economic cost of regulatory complexity," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 163-183.
    14. Chambers, Dustin, 2021. "Toward a Formalization of Policy Analytics," Working Papers 11019, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    15. Dincer, Oguzhan & Gunalp, Burak, 2020. "The effects of federal regulations on corruption in U.S. States," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Dean, James & Geloso, Vincent, 2024. "Poverty spells and economic freedom: Canadian evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 282-296.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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