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Management-Based Regulation: Prescribing Private Management To Achieve Public Goals, Cary Coglianese, David Lazer

David Lazer

We analyze a little-studied regulatory approach that we call "management-based" regulation. Management-based regulation directs regulated organizations to engage in a planning process that aims toward the achievement of public goals, offering firms flexibility in how they achieve public goals. In this paper we develop a framework for assessing conditions for using management-based regulation as opposed to the more traditional technology-based or performance-based regulation. Drawing on case studies of management-based regulation in the areas of food safety, industrial safety, and environmental protection, we show how management-based regulation can be an effective strategy when regulated entities are heterogeneous and regulatory outputs are …