Choosing Whether to Comply with a General Duty or with a Specification Standard

Abstract

Regulated firms sometimes have a choice about whether to discharge a general duty or to comply with specification standards. This paper formalizes rationales for giving firms such a choice, but also points out drawbacks. One rationale is that choice can make compliance less onerous and hence more attractive. A second rationale is that the more socially efficient form of compliance can vary among firms. Whether this approach actually would be conducive to social efficiency depends on a range of factors, including the proportion of firms that would otherwise comply, the inflexibility that specification standards impose on firms, and on how strictly general duties would be interpreted.