Cass Sunstein, who served as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) from September 2009 – October 2012, will discuss “Deciding by Default: Lessons from Behavioral Economics” at the Woodrow Wilson School on Monday, November 26, 2012, at 4:30 p.m., Bowl 016, Robertson Hall.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is located within the Office of Management and Budget and was created by Congress with the enactment of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (PRA). OIRA carries out several important functions, including reviewing Federal regulations, reducing paperwork burdens, and overseeing the implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information technology, information policy, privacy, and statistical policy. OIRA is also involved in the federal rulemaking process and has been directed by the president to follow certain principles in rulemaking, such as consideration of alternatives and analysis on impacts, both costs and benefits.
Sunstein is currently the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard College in 1975 and in 1978 from Harvard Law School. After graduation, Sunstein clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. He then went on to work as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Justice Department. Sunstein also was a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School for 27 years and is on leave as the Harry Kalven Jr. Visiting Professor of Law.
