In this episode, we speak with David Weisbach and Jennifer Nou of the University of Chicago Law School, as well as Alan Sanstad of the Computation Institute and The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

The trio of researchers organized a conference in April 2015 centered on a persistent issues for federal institutions: when making regulations and rules, how should policymakers account for what they don’t know: the uncertainties that could affect the long term costs and benefits of their actions?

Weisbach, Nou and Sanstad sat down with us to talk about why getting policymakers and economic theorists together might hold the key to helping federal agencies best assess these uncertainties and understand how to address them in the policy process.