Patrick McLaughlin

Director, Program for Economic Research on Regulation, Senior Research Fellow

Mercatus Center

Patrick McLaughlin

Director, Program for Economic Research on Regulation, Senior Research Fellow

Mercatus Center

Dr. Patrick A. McLaughlin is the director of the Program for Economic Research on Regulation and a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research focuses primarily on regulations and the regulatory process.

Dr. McLaughlin created and leads the RegData and QuantGov projects, deploying machine-learning and other tools of data science to quantify governance indicators found in federal and state regulations and other policy documents. The resulting database is freely available at QuantGov.org, and has facilitated pioneering empirical research by numerous third-party users on the causes and effects of regulation.

Dr. McLaughlin has authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies in diverse areas, including regulatory economics, administrative law, industrial organization, and international trade. His book, The Impact of Federal Regulation on the Fifty States (with Oliver Sherouse), is available for download here.

Dr. McLaughlin has given expert testimonies before Congress and state legislatures on topics ranging from the economic implications of regulatory accumulation to the potential impacts of regulatory reform. His research and op-eds have been featured in a wide range of media outlets including The Economist, C-SPAN, WSJ, Politico, and The Hill.

Prior to joining Mercatus, Dr. McLaughlin served as a Senior Economist at the Federal Railroad Administration in the United States Department of Transportation and as a Visiting Scholar at the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Clemson University.

A person listed as a contributor has spoken or otherwise participated in Regulatory Transparency Project events, publications, or multimedia presentations. A person's appearance on the website does not imply an endorsement or relationship between the person and the Regulatory Transparency Project. The Regulatory Transparency Project takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues. All expressions of opinion by a contributor are those of the contributor.

Contributions

Deep Dive Episode 20 – The 2017 Mercatus Report: The Implications of Regulating Over the Long-Term

January 23, 2018

Patrick McLaughlin (Mercatus Center) discuss his study on regulation’s effect on the decision-making processes of individual businesses and, as a result, on economic growth.

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