Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Risk-Based Monitoring: A Model And Application To Fda’S Imported Food Monitoring Program, Sheila A. Martin, Nancy Dean Beaulieu, Richard Williams

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Regulatory agencies intervene in risky situations by outlawing practices that impose risks on society or by proscribing practices that reduce risk. Because public resources for enforcing regulation are limited, public policy has recently emphasized maximizing the benefit from enforcement by considering the risk reduction achievable from each intervention. This emphasis requires a shift of resources to monitoring situations in which regulatory violations are most likely, their welfare effects are most serious, and their detection is probable and relatively inexpensive. This article is a risk-based monitoring model applied to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) import monitoring program. Although some components …