President Trump is not fond of regulations. Within weeks of taking office, he and his appointees began to roll back rules that govern the financial industry, guns, the energy business and broadband internet providers.

Last week was the auto industry’s turn. In a speech in Ypsilanti, Mich., Mr. Trump said he would alter rules imposed by the Obama administration to raise vehicles’ fuel standards, which are aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. The rules, Mr. Trump said, are killing jobs. Getting rid of them would prompt a resurgence in the auto industry that would make America “the car capital of the world again,” he said.

That’s one possibility. We also have to consider another scenario: Loosening the fuel-economy rules could remove a primary incentive for big carmakers to catch up with innovative upstarts like Tesla and leave the American car industry out of step with a future ruled by electric motors rather than the internal combustion engine.

This might happen because the effects of regulation are not as simple as Mr. Trump argues. The president’s view that rules almost always hurt businesses is not supported by history. Researchers who study regulation and its effects on business said there have been numerous instances in which regulation speeds along, rather than impedes, technological progress. It has happened in the energy business, the electronics industry and health care.