The Institute for Regulatory Law and Economics (IRLE) is an educational and outreach program of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University to sharpen the tools required for principled and thoughtful regulatory decision-making. The IRLE’s primary objective is regulator education to enable more economically-informed regulatory policy. 

The IRLE framework is organized around five “prisms” of economic analysis: neoclassical economics, innovation and dynamism, institutional and organizational economics, public choice economics, and the innovator’s dilemma. It also uses experimental economics as an experiential learning method. The program provides policy-relevant learning materials, and its flagship event gathers state regulators and staff together for an annual 4-day Socratic seminar to study and discuss the economics of closely-regulated network industries, bringing a clear theoretical framework in law and economics to actual regulatory practice.