Publications

The GW Regulatory Studies Center scholars regularly conduct applied research to understand regulatory policy and practice from a public interest perspective. Our content often takes the form of public interest comments, formal testimony, working papers, policy insights, and short commentaries analyzing the most pressing issues in regulatory policy. View the rest of our material by the different types of publications listed on this page or our research areas.

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What We Publish

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Public Comments & Testimonies

Scholarly analysis of the potential effects of particular rulemakings from federal agencies, and advice to Congress on how to improve the rulemaking process.

 

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Commentaries & Insights

Short-form publications intended for all audiences which provide easy to access analysis of regulatory policy.

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Books & Reports

Formal publications, often completed with other leading organizations and individuals, providing a thorough understanding of regulations and the rulemaking process.

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Newsletters

The weekly Regulation Digest contains everything you need to know about regulatory policy today, and our monthly Center Update gives you all of the latest from our team.

 

For accessible charts and supporting data that you can use in your own publications or presentations, visit the Reg Stats page.

 


Latest Publications 

2020 Spring Agenda

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) released its semiannual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Agenda lists all regulatory actions currently being developed by federal agencies.

Parsing a Pair of Two-track Regulatory Actions: Part Two

This second part will look at two actions affecting compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Nudging the Nudger: Toward a Choice Architecture for Regulators

Behavioral research has shown that individuals do not always behave in ways that match textbook definitions of rationality but are subject to cognitive biases that may lead to systematic errors in judgments and decisions.

The Social Media Executive Order and the FCC

Trump's executive order on social media instructs the Secretary of Commerce to petition the FCC for a rulemaking to address viewpoint-based speech restrictions.

Consultation as Policymaking Innovation: Comparing Government Transparency and Public Participation in China and the United States

This article compares government transparency and public participation in policymaking across China and the United States. The analysis specifically focuses on the notice and comment process—government announcement of proposed policies and solicitation of public feedback—at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Online Consultation and the Institutionalization of Transparency and Participation in Chinese Policymaking

This article examines the institutionalization of online consultation, a prominent instrument of governance reform in contemporary China in which government organizations make public draft laws and regulations and solicit input from interested parties prior to finalizing decisions. The article specifically analyses the extent to which online consultation is a durable governance reform that enhances transparency and participation in policymaking. The analysis focuses on the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and Guangzhou Municipal Government (GMG), leading organizations in the implementation of online consultation.

Lost in the Flood?

This article examines agency responsiveness to mass comment campaigns – collections of identical and near‐duplicate comments sponsored by organizations and submitted by group members and supporters – in administrative rulemaking in the United States.