A 50-State Review of Regulatory Procedures

Regulatory agencies are delegated powers to execute statutory mandates. These powers vary widely across states in terms of how agencies are constrained by procedural requirements found in state Administrative Procedure Acts (APAs) and related statutory provisions and executive orders. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive database detailing the way states regulate, as the process followed when implementing regulations can determine the outcomes those regulations produce, including their effectiveness. Differences in regulatory procedures across states can also inform efforts to reform regulatory procedures. This paper describes a novel database of agency rulemaking procedures drawn primarily from a review of the APAs of all 50 US states and provides some preliminary findings from the data. Metrics related to executive and legislative review of regulations, independent agency review, analytical requirements (such as small business impact statements, fiscal impact statements, or cost–benefit analysis), and periodic review requirements are captured. We anticipate that researchers will have many uses for the data set, including testing theories from the economics and public administration literatures about the causes and consequences of state regulation