Government regulation often impedes hard-working Americans from starting new businesses or creating new products. When entrepreneurs face onerous regulations, it doesn’t just hurt those individuals. It also hurts the economy, which doesn’t get to reap the financial benefits of new companies. It hurts consumers, who never receive the benefits of a new product or service. And it hurts workers, who are never able to benefit from the job opportunities that come with new businesses.
We developed an innovative policy reform—the Regulatory Sandbox—to overcome this problem. This legal model allows new, innovative businesses and ideas to thrive while still protecting the consumer. A regulatory sandbox is a space where participating businesses won’t be subject to onerous regulations—for up to two years. The point is to allow these businesses to “play” in the sandbox without regulations.
Our policy team outlined a comprehensive plan to make Utah the first state in the country to adopt an all-inclusive regulatory sandbox—and we succeeded in persuading the legislature to adopt it. Being all-inclusive, the sandbox program is accessible to businesses of any type or size, allowing everyone to be shielded from antiquated regulations as they develop innovative products, services, and business models.
Our team at Libertas Institute is now using their expertise and experience to help other states pass regulatory sandboxes so even more Americans can benefit from this innovative policy.
In recognition of this first-in-the-nation policy achievement, our team was awarded the “Biggest Win for Freedom” award from State Policy Network—chosen from among dozens of applicants vying for the prize. The award is given once per year to organizations “doing exceptional work to develop credible policy research and ideas and [who] collaborate with communities and leaders to turn these ideas into real-world, life-changing solutions.”
This is the second time our team has received this award; we are the only group in the State Policy Network that has received this top policy award twice!