TECHNOLOGY-FORCING. India West has a lengthy post on whether or not some kinds of regulations enhance productivity. Well worth a look. A couple of his points bear further thought. Consider first the Robert Gordon argument: "A classic example is the French minimum wage, which boost productivity in restaurants by making it too expensive to hire bus boys and force capital-labor substitution by eliminating such American anachronisms as parking lot attendants and grocery baggers. In Germany stringent shop-closing hours, only recently relaxed, force consumers to do their shopping in a concentrated period, thus boosting retail productivity. In this and other ways, European institutions favor workers and American institutions favor consumers, explaining at least part of the substantially more even distribution of income in Europe." For those employed, that is, as Gordon continues and India West notes. On the other hand that turns slow French service or long German checkout lines from a flaw into "atmosphere." (I am waiting for an observer of the European welfare state to demonstrate a causation from high minimum wages to large indigenous reserve armies of terrorists.)

I note further that technology-forcing legislation, when implemented, might have the effect of accelerating some forms of improvement, but not without other tradeoffs. The continued debate over the role of fuel-economy standards on vehicular safety (old sample here) is one such example: you can improve the fuel economy of cars by making them lighter, which makes them more fragile in crashes, oh, and cheaper to drive...