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University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

2004

Series

Administrative Law

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

Shifting Sands: The Limits Of Science In Setting Risk Standards, Cary Coglianese, Gary E. Marchant Apr 2004

Shifting Sands: The Limits Of Science In Setting Risk Standards, Cary Coglianese, Gary E. Marchant

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Regulators need to rely on science to understand problems and predict the consequences of regulatory actions, but over reliance on science can actually contribute to, or at least deflect attention from, incoherent policymaking. In this article, we explore the problems with using science to justify policy decisions by analyzing the Environmental Protection Agency's recently revised air quality standards for ground-level ozone and particulate matter, some of the most significant regulations ever issued. In revising these standards, EPA mistakenly invoked science as the exclusive basis for its decisions and deflected attention from a remarkable series of inconsistencies. For example, even though …

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Risk Regulation, Endogenous Public Concerns, And The Hormones Dispute: Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself?, Howard F. Chang Jan 2004

Risk Regulation, Endogenous Public Concerns, And The Hormones Dispute: Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself?, Howard F. Chang

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The dispute between the United States and the European Union (EU) regarding the EU ban on meat imports treated with hormones raises the question: How should regulators respond to public fears that are disproportionate to the risks as evaluated by experts in risk assessment? If regulators cannot eliminate public fears through education, then there is some social benefit from regulations that reduce the feared risks and thereby reduce public anxiety and distortions in behavior flowing from that anxiety. These considerations imply that we cannot simply ignore public fears that technocrats would deem "irrational." On the other hand, there is the …

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Agency Choice Of Policymaking Form, Elizabeth Magill Jan 2004

Agency Choice Of Policymaking Form, Elizabeth Magill

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An administrative agency delegated some task--protect the environment, assure the integrity of the securities markets, improve auto safety--might carry out that obligation by adopting a rule, bringing or deciding a case, or announcing its interpretation of the statute. Although agencies are unique institutions in this respect, this state of affairs generates little comment. This Article aims to rectify that by identifying, evaluating, and coming to terms with the phenomenon of agency choice of policymaking form. That phenomenon can be simply stated: The typical administrative agency is authorized to use a range of distinct policymaking forms to effectuate its statutory mandate …

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E-Rulemaking: Information Technology And The Regulatory Process: New Directions In Digital Government Research, Cary Coglianese Jan 2004

E-Rulemaking: Information Technology And The Regulatory Process: New Directions In Digital Government Research, Cary Coglianese

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Electronic rulemaking, or e-rulemaking, offers the potential to overcome some of the informational challenges associated with developing regulations. E-rulemaking refers to the use of digital technologies in the development and implementation of regulations. The use of these technologies may help streamline and improve regulatory management, such as by helping agency staff retrieve and analyze vast quantities of information from diverse sources. By taking better advantage of advances in digital technologies, agencies might also be able to increase the public's access to and involvement in rulemaking. Part I of this article details the rulemaking process, outlining the procedures agencies must currently …

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E-Rulemaking: Information Technology And The Regulatory Process, Cary Coglianese Jan 2004

E-Rulemaking: Information Technology And The Regulatory Process, Cary Coglianese

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In order to channel interest in e-rulemaking toward effective and meaningful innovations in regulatory practice, the Kennedy School of Government's Regulatory Policy Program convened two major workshops, bringing together academic experts from computer sciences, law, and public management along with key public officials involved in managing federal regulation. This paper summarizes the discussions that took place at these workshops and develops an agenda for future research on information technology and the rulemaking process. It highlights the institutional challenges associated with using information technology in the federal regulatory process and suggests that in some cases existing rulemaking practices may need to …

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Fear Assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis And The Pricing Of Fear And Anxiety, Matthew D. Adler Jan 2004

Fear Assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis And The Pricing Of Fear And Anxiety, Matthew D. Adler

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Risk assessment is now a common feature of regulatory practice, but fear assessment is not. In particular, environmental, health and safety agencies such as EPA, FDA, OSHA, NHTSA, and CPSC, commonly count death, illness and injury as costs for purposes of cost-benefit analysis, but almost never incorporate fear, anxiety or other welfare-reducing mental states into the analysis. This is puzzling, since fear and anxiety are welfare setbacks, and since the very hazards regulated by these agencies - air or water pollutants, toxic waste dumps, food additives and contaminants, workplace toxins and safety threats, automobiles, dangerous consumer products, radiation, and so …

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Seeking Truth For Power: Informational Strategy And Regulatory Policy Making, Cary Coglianese, Richard Zeckhauser, Edward A. Parson Jan 2004

Seeking Truth For Power: Informational Strategy And Regulatory Policy Making, Cary Coglianese, Richard Zeckhauser, Edward A. Parson

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Whether regulating mutual funds or chemical manufacturers, government's policy decisions depend on information possessed by industry. Yet it is not in any industry's interests to share information that will lead to costly regulations. So how do government regulators secure needed information from industry? Since information disclosed by any firm cannot be retrieved and can be used to regulate the entire sector, industry faces a collective action problem in maintaining silence. While collective silence is easy to maintain if all firms' interests are aligned, individual firms' payoffs for disclosure can vary due to heterogeneous effects of regulation and differing expectations about …

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The Epa's Risky Reasoning, Cary Coglianese, Gary E. Marchant Jan 2004

The Epa's Risky Reasoning, Cary Coglianese, Gary E. Marchant

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Regulators must rely on science to understand problems and predict the consequences of regulatory actions, but science by itself cannot justify public policy decisions. We review the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to justify recent changes to its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter, showing how the agency was able to cloak its policy judgments under the guise of scientific objectivity. By doing so, the EPA evaded accountability for a shifting and incoherent set of policy positions that will have major implications for public health and the economy. For example, even though EPA claimed to base …

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