How government data helps to improve lives

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This Data Isn’t Dull. It Improves Lives.

By RICHARD H. THALER

GOVERNMENTS have learned a cheap new way to improve people’s lives. Here is the basic recipe:

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Another example involves weather data produced by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The forecasts you find on the Weather Channel, or on the evening news or online, use the agency’s information. Again, the government produces and releases raw data, and the private sector transforms it into something useful for the public.

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Now the administration is pushing to use this concept as a tool for regulation, and as a method of avoiding more heavy-handed rule making. The idea is that making things more transparent can immediately turn consumers into better shoppers and make markets work better. One might think that such an initiative would receive nearly universal support — after all, who could be against openness and transparency? But it turns out that some people are.

Two cases are under discussion right now.

First, the Department of Transportation is considering a new rule requiring airlines to make all of their prices public and immediately available online. The postings would include both ticket prices and the fees for “extras” like baggage, movies, food and beverages. The data would then be accessible to travel Web sites, and thus to all shoppers.

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Another initiative has been proposed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 2008, Congress overwhelmingly passed and President George W. Bush signed legislation mandating an online database of reported safety issues in products, at saferproducts.gov. The Web site ran for a few months in a “soft launch” and went into full operation on Friday.

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Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

November 2010: Partisan Rift Mires Product Safety Database Plan

For decades, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has gathered a trove of complaints about potentially dangerous products, from cribs to Chinese-made drywall. But for the most part, the information has not been made public because of a federal law that requires a manufacturer’s approval before it can be released.

On Wednesday, the commission is scheduled to vote to create a new, publicly accessible database of safety complaints that is intended to make it easier for consumers to learn about problems with a product.

But even as the vote looms, the proposal remains mired in a partisan rift among the five members of the commission.

The agency’s two Republican commissioners have waged a last-ditch effort to alter the database in ways they say would be more fair to manufacturers, but that consumer groups and at least one Democratic commissioner say would significantly weaken it.

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December 2010: In Split Vote, Safety Panel Approves Database for Consumer Complaints

After a contentious debate, the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday narrowly approved an outline for a new database of consumer complaints about potentially dangerous products.

The database, which is scheduled to go online in March and be called SaferProducts.gov, will allow consumers to report events of harm, or potential harm, caused by products as varied as toys and cleaners. For instance, it will allow parents to see what, if any, safety complaints have been filed about various baby strollers.

“Today’s vote represents a major victory for consumers and supporters of open government because it will provide the public access to critical product safety information,” Inez M. Tenenbaum, the commission’s chairwoman, said in a statement with her two Democratic colleagues, Robert S. Adler and Thomas H. Moore.

The database was mandated by Congress in 2008, but many of the details were left for the commission to decide. On Wednesday, the latest plan was approved by a 3-2 vote, with the two Republican commissioners opposed.

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Typical Republicans: block and defund anything that helps Americans.

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