When Do Agencies Change Their Proposed Rules?

16 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2007 Last revised: 13 Aug 2009

See all articles by Stuart Shapiro

Stuart Shapiro

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy

Date Written: October 30, 2007

Abstract

When do government agencies change their mind? It is well established by those who follow the regulatory process that when a federal agency issues a proposed rule, that proposal is generally a document that the agency has put a great deal of thought into and has considerable stake in finalizing. But, sometimes agencies change their proposed rules. This article uses a dataset of 427 regulations that were preceded by proposed rules to determine the conditions under which agencies make changes to their proposals. I find that the number of comments has a significant effect on agency propensity to change proposed rules. This is true even after I control for the salience and complexity of the rule and variables measuring the political environment. No other variable has a statistically significant impact besides a variable measuring whether the rule is of general or particular applicability with general rules more likely to be changed. These conclusions have implications for notice and comment rulemaking and for anlaysis of bureaucratic decisionmaking in general.

Keywords: rulemaking, regulation, participation, bureaucracy

JEL Classification: D73, K23

Suggested Citation

Shapiro, Stuart, When Do Agencies Change Their Proposed Rules? (October 30, 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1026066 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1026066

Stuart Shapiro (Contact Author)

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy ( email )

New Brunswick, NJ 08901
United States

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