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Public policy's bibliography: The use of research in US regulatory impact analyses
Author(s) -
Desmarais Bruce A.,
Hird John A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
regulation and governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.417
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1748-5991
pISSN - 1748-5983
DOI - 10.1111/rego.12041
Subject(s) - regulatory science , executive order , citation , political science , order (exchange) , variation (astronomy) , science policy , executive branch , public economics , accounting , public administration , public relations , business , economics , law , biology , politics , ecology , physics , finance , astrophysics
Major US federal regulatory decisions are developed and justified using regulatory impact analyses ( RIA s) mandated by executive order. We examine the scientific citation activity in RIA s, 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 RIA s from 2008–2012. We present evidence indicating that some agencies make extensive use of science in RIA s, 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.