Increased Federal Regulations Lead To More Deaths, and N.C. Largely Affected, Study Finds | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is Johnny Kampis.

    New research finds that federal regulation leads to an increase in deaths, and North Carolina is one of the states most affected.

    Days before President-elect Joe Biden enters office, Mercatus Center economists James Broughel and Dustin Chambers released a study arguing that the connection between regulation and mortality rates may be causal. The Democratic Biden will likely be keen to follow party philosophy and reimplement many of the federal regulations the outgoing president got rid of during his administration.

    Broughel and Chambers note that the proposed regulations intend to make Americans safer in their homes, the workplace and the environment. Some produce that outcome, but overall, they found those regulations actually caused more deaths.

    Fuel efficiency regulations, for example, have led to automakers making smaller vehicles, which are more hazardous to their drivers in accidents. Department of Homeland Security regulations have increased the cost of airfare, inducing more people to drive, which leads to more traffic accidents. The authors found that increased regulations usually hit Americans in the pocketbook. The drop in disposable income often leads to less individual spending on health care.

    "If individual expenditures on health are at all effective at reducing mortality risk and if regulatory costs are sizable, it follows that regulatory costs induce some deaths," Broughel and Chambers wrote.

    The researchers found the mortality rate is higher in Southern states because of the hit to the pocketbooks due to average income in the South that's largely less than other parts of the U.S.

    The study used various health conditions such as diabetes, neonatal disorders, and cardiovascular maladies to create a mortality index and determine the states most impacted by regulations. North Carolina ranked 11th on that metric.

    The states with the five highest mortality index scores, in order, were Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia and Arkansas. The five lowest were Hawaii, California, Florida, Minnesota and Arizona.

    Overall, a 1% increase in federal regulations increases the mortality index by between 0.53% and 1.35%, the study found.

    Broughel and Chambers argue that regulatory agencies should calculate the expected fatalities induced by a new regulation and compare it to expected lives saved to form a mortality risk analysis before moving forward with changes.

    "Reporting this information should be a routine part of regulatory impact analysis," they wrote.

    Johnny Kampis is a freelance writer for Carolina Journal.
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




Commission Recommends 40% Funding Increase for DOT Months After an Audit Showed Excess Spending Carolina Journal, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics America Is Failing the Crazy Test


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

Like many other states, the North Carolina has received a lot of money from the federal government to address the impacts of the corona virus pandemic.
A local wife began training to join her regional women's hockey team when she discovered the grand prize for winners of the National Hockey League is a Stanley Cup.
it is time to prosecture them for election interference
A Chinese national was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the bust of a massive marijuana operation in rural south Georgia last week.
Felon voting advocates argue in a new court filing that North Carolina's new election law should have no impact on their federal lawsuit.
That is one that was stopped how many weren't stopped
The game show “Jeopardy!,” in which gives contestants must give answers in the form of a question, embraced the woke agenda by including so-called “neo-pronouns” as an answer.

HbAD1

City employing all-of-government effort aimed at finding work for illegal immigrants, emails indicate
Embattled former New York Congressman George Santos has landed on his feet following his ouster from the U.S. House of Representatives, with the announcement that he has been hired as a fact-checker at The New York Times.
Former President Donald Trump won Michigan’s Republican Party presidential primary on Tuesday night, beating former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley by more than 30 points.
New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams said this week that illegal alien crime in the city is getting so bad, officials need to look at modifying the city’s sanctuary status so that local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration officials to deport violent criminals.
On Thursday, Nov. 2, a group of protesters blocked the Durham Freeway (NC-147), the main artery through Durham and a major connector for the Research Triangle area, during rush hour.
The Tennessee state House passed a bill on Monday that would prohibit the flying of any flag other than the American flag and a few other official flags in public school classrooms, legislation that was sparked by the prevalence of pride flags in recent years.
The Democrat Party remains fractured under Joe Biden. In recent days, the embarrassments of Super Tuesday have continued.

HbAD2

 
Back to Top