Public policy's bibliography: The use of research in US regulatory impact analyses

Major US federal regulatory decisions are developed and justified using regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) mandated by executive order. We examine the scientific citation activity in RIAs, a unique effort that we believe holds significant potential for understanding the use of science in policymaking. This paper reports preliminary findings from collecting and examining scientific citations in 104 RIAs from 2008–2012. We present evidence indicating that some agencies make extensive use of science in RIAs, that there is substantial variation in use across agencies, and show variation across journals and disciplines cited by regulatory agencies. Finally, we present analysis showing that regulatory policymakers make greater use of research published in highly cited scholarly journals. We conclude by outlining several future directions for research using these data.

[1]  A. Zeileis,et al.  Regression Models for Count Data in R , 2008 .

[2]  W. Wagner.  Importing Daubert to Administrative Agencies Through the Information Quality Act , 2004 .

[3]  S. Jasanoff,et al.  The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers. , 1991 .

[4]  David F. Channell.  Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation , 1999 .

[5]  Jean-Louis Denis,et al.  Knowledge exchange processes in organizations and policy arenas: a narrative systematic review of the literature. , 2010, The Milbank quarterly.

[6]  James G. McGann.  Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise , 2005, Perspectives on Politics.

[7]  Klaus Jacob,et al.  The Production and Use of Knowledge in Regulatory Impact Assessment - An Empirical Analysis , 2009 .

[8]  Ronald E. Doel,et al.  :The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics , 2008 .

[9]  C. Weiss,et al.  Social science research and decision-making , 1980 .

[10]  Jonathan R. Olson,et al.  Connecting Research and Policymaking: Implications for Theory and Practice from the Family Impact Seminars , 2000 .

[11]  J. Morrall,et al.  Continuity, Change, and Priorities: The Quality and Use of Regulatory Analysis Across US Administrations , 2013 .

[12]  Miron L. Straf,et al.  Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy , 2013 .

[13]  Does Analysis Matter? Economics and Planning in the Department of the Interior , 1991 .

[14]  Rescuing Science From Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research , 2007 .

[15]  Nancy B. Shulock,et al.  The paradox of policy analysis: If it is not used, why do we produce so much of it? , 1999 .

[16]  Colin Scott.  Accountability in the Regulatory State , 2000 .

[17]  D. Whiteman.  The Fate of Policy Analysis in Congressional Decision Making: Three Types of Use in Committees , 1985 .

[18]  C. Copeland.  Federal Rulemaking: The Role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs , 2010 .

[19]  Robert W. Hahn,et al.  How Well Does the U.S. Government Do Benefit-Cost Analysis? , 2007, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.

[20]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  Public values and public failure in US science policy , 2005 .

[21]  C. Volden.  Erratum: A Formal Model of the Politics of Delegation in a Separation of Powers System , 2002 .

[22]  Susan E. Dudley,et al.  Improving the Use of Science to Inform Environmental Regulation , 2012 .

[23]  A. J. Angulo.  By Executive Order , 2012 .

[24]  Jon M. Peha,et al.  Science and Technology Advice for Congress , 2003 .

[25]  Cornelius M. Kerwin,et al.  Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy , 2019 .

[26]  Susan E. Cozzens,et al.  23 Science, Government, and the Politics of Knowledge , 1995 .

[27]  Frank Vibert.  The Rise of the Unelected: The Rise of the Unelected , 2007 .

[28]  Chris Rumford,et al.  :The Rise of the Unelected: Democracy and the New Separation of Powers , 2009 .

[29]  D. Guston.  Boundary Organizations in Environmental Policy and Science: An Introduction , 2001 .

[30]  C. Radaelli.  Regulating Rule‐Making via Impact Assessment , 2010 .

[31]  John E. Brandl,et al.  Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic science and technological innovation , 1998 .

[32]  Policy Analysts in the Bureaucracy. , 1978 .

[33]  Julienne Chang.  Spin Cycle : How Research Is Used in Policy Debates : The Case of Charter Schools , 2006 .

[34]  Jack H. Knott,et al.  If Dissemination Is the Solution, What Is the Problem ? , 1980 .

[35]  Elizabeth S. Vieira,et al.  The journal relative impact: an indicator for journal assessment , 2011, Scientometrics.

[36]  Ismael Rafols,et al.  Global maps of science based on the new Web-of-Science categories , 2012, Scientometrics.

[37]  F. Sager,et al.  Types of knowledge utilization of regulatory impact assessments: Evidence from Swiss policymaking , 2013 .

[38]  Personal reflections on an unfinished journey through global environmental problems of long timescale , 1998 .

[39]  Mathew D. McCubbins,et al.  Who Controls? Information and the Structure of Legislative Decision Making , 1994 .

[40]  C. Weiss.  The many meanings of research utilization. , 1979 .

[41]  David M. Walker,et al.  Citation pattern and lifespan: a comparison of discipline, institution, and individual , 2011, Scientometrics.

[42]  Nathan Caplan,et al.  The Two-Communities Theory and Knowledge Utilization , 1979 .

[43]  Claudio M. Radaelli,et al.  The diffusion of regulatory impact analysis – Best practice or lesson‐drawing? , 2004 .

[44]  Robert Braam,et al.  Everything about genes: Some results on the dynamics of genomics research , 2009, Scientometrics.

[45]  John N. Warfield,et al.  Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving , 1979 .

[46]  Richard D. Morgenstern,et al.  Economic Analyses at EPA: Assessing Regulatory Impact , 1997 .