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 

New Regulations.gov API

GSA unveiled a beta version of Regulations.gov, including a new API with a feature that allows users to submit comments on federal rulemakings through an API.

OPM's Paid Parental Leave

The Federal Employee Paid Leave Act, enacted in 2019, allows several categories of federal employees to substitute up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for the unpaid leave they are entitled to under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The substitution is permitted in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child with the employee. OPM’s interim final rule implements the legislation.

Unintended Consequences of GDPR

Recent studies explore the reasons for troubling and unintended consequence of GDPR on competition and market concentration.

The NTIA and Section 230

The NTIA proposal includes several provisions that would narrow the scope of Internet intermediaries’ liability when they remove or restrict access to content provided by others. It would also require the intermediaries to disclose their content moderation policies in a form that is understandable by consumers and small businesses.

Improvements in SEC Economic Analysis

Several D.C. Circuit decisions that remanded regulations to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) between 2005 and 2011 provide a natural experiment that permits researchers to identify the correlation between judicial review, the quality of regulatory agencies’ economic analysis, and its use in regulatory decisions. SEC economic analysis improved substantially following the issuance of new staff guidance on economic analysis in 2012.

Mass, Computer-Generated, and Fraudulent Comments

The Administrative Conference of the United States requested proposals for a new project on “Mass, Computer-Generated, and Fraudulent Comments."

Race and Regulation

The public comment process offers a way to place evidence in an agency’s record that it might not otherwise consider, such as race-related effects.

Analyzing Agency Budgets for Regulatory Spending

This Regulatory Insight analyzes four Trump administration budget proposals to identify notable recurring trends in regulatory spending. Budget data indicate that spending on homeland security regulation has risen, while outlays for environment and energy regulation have fallen. Comparing the president’s budget proposals with actual outlays suggests where the administration has been largely successful in accomplishing its political goals and where Congress has hindered those goals.

The Discounting Dilemma

OMB's original guidance on discounting from 1988 can help to resolve many misunderstandings about discounting that have developed since then.

EPA's Benefit-Cost Analysis

In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), EPA seeks to codify procedures that will ensure adequate consistency and transparency in applying Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) to rulemakings under the Clean Air Act (CAA).