9.2 bruce yandle

Question 1

Bruce Yandle

Answer 1

concept of “Baptists and Bootleggers” and how they relate to politicians

Bootleggers - illegally sold alcohol

Baptists - religious group that disapproved alcohol

Question 2

costs regulators try to minimize

Answer 2

• The cost of making a mistake
  - Simple rules applied across the board require fewer decisions where mistakes can be made.
• The cost of enforcement.
  - Again, simple rules requiring uniform behavior are easier to monitor and enforce than complex ones, and they also have a false ring of fairness.
• Political costs.
  - A legislator is likely to be unhappy with regulators who fail to behave in politically prudent ways who fail, in the legislator’s view, to remember the industries and the workers in his area.

Question 3

blue laws

Answer 3

A series of laws that restrict alcohol sales.

Approved by Baptists for moral reasons.

Approved by Bootleggers because these laws eliminated legal competition.

Question 4

how did blue laws relate to the government?

Answer 4

The politician will use the public interest argument as a cover while they accept money from the groups that will be benefited by the regulation

–> use Baptists for votes and Bootleggers for money

Question 5

rational ignorance

Answer 5

occurs when the cost of educating oneself on an issue exceeds the potential benefit that the knowledge would provide

the costs of knowledge are high and the benefits are low

Question 6

If these command-and-control regulations are actually ineffective at controlling pollution and really about increasing profits for some groups, then why do we still have them?

Answer 6

rational ignorance!

Bad environmental policies can persist because people will vote for policies that sound good over policies that might actually work.