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

Long-form publications intended for academic audiences that take a deep dive into a particular aspect of regulatory policy.

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

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

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

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

Are Future Lives Worth More Than Our Own?

March 14, 2020

The Environmental Protection Agency has asked its Environmental Economics Advisory Committee (EEAC) for advice on how the Agency should adjust the value of statistical lives (VSL) in the future. Incomes in the future are expected to grow, and people with higher incomes tend to place a higher value on measures to reduce their own mortality risks. Does this mean that a benefit-cost analysis should place greater weight on lives saved in the future than it does on those saved today? In comments filed with the Committee and summarized here, Mannix argues that this is more than just a question of analytical technique.

When Pigs Fly? DOT Says Not for Free.

March 11, 2020

CEQ's Proposed Update to NEPA

March 11, 2020

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is proposing an update to its regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The purposes of NEPA include establishing a national policy toward the environment and promoting “efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man.”

Is American Food having an Identity Crisis?

March 9, 2020

Statutory Delegation, Agency Authority, and the Asymmetry of Impact Analysis

February 26, 2020

This paper documents the diverse degrees of discretionary authority Congress grants US executive branch agencies. It then presents a case study that systematically compares the quality of impact analysis that informed legislative and regulatory decisions on positive train control, a technology mandated by statute in 2008.

OMB's Request for Comment on Marginal Excess Tax Burden & EO 13771

February 20, 2020

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has requested advice on incorporating a measure of “marginal excess tax burden” (METB) as a potential cost under the regulatory cost accounting system mandated by Executive Order (E.O.) 13771.

Regulating Agencies

February 18, 2020

Scholars of regulation generally view the procedures that agencies must follow when promulgating rules as instruments by which political principals control bureaucratic agents. Much like political principals attempt to use procedural checks to constrain regulatory agencies’ actions, these same agencies employ various regulatory instruments to influence the decisions of private agents, especially firms.

OMB's Request for Comment on Marginal Excess Tax Burden and EO 13771

February 18, 2020

Executive Order (EO) 13771 of January 30, 2017 imposed new regulatory procedures on executive branch agencies by directing them to (1) eliminate two existing rules for each new rule issued and (2) offset costs imposed by new rules through compliance with an incremental regulatory budget.

GSA Moving to Deal with Mass and Fake Comments

February 11, 2020

On January 30, the General Services Administration (GSA) hosted a public meeting on mass and fake comments.

Fake It Till They Make It: How Bad Actors Use Astroturfing to Manipulate Regulators, Disenfranchise Consumers and Subvert the Rulemaking Process

February 6, 2020

For the past several years, along with colleagues at GW, I have been conducting research on mass comment campaigns in agency rulemaking. By mass comment campaigns, we mean collections of identical and near-duplicate comments sponsored by organizations and submitted by group members and supporters