First Generation E-Rulemaking: An Assessment of Regulatory Agency Websites

8 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2007

See all articles by Stuart Shapiro

Stuart Shapiro

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

Cary Coglianese

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Date Written: April 11, 2007

Abstract

We examine 89 websites from federal regulatory agencies in order to evaluate their ease of use for those interested in commenting on or learning about their proposed regulations. We find that while there has been a lot of attention given to second and third generation "e-rulemaking" efforts, agency websites, a first generation innovation, still have considerable room for improvement. Notwithstanding legislative and executive branch efforts to enhance the accessibility of regulatory information on the Internet, our coding of regulatory agency websites reveals considerable variation in the quality of agency websites, with many websites still failing to provide relatively basic features.

Keywords: e-rulemaking, websites, regulation.

JEL Classification: K23, O38

Suggested Citation

Shapiro, Stuart and Coglianese, Cary, First Generation E-Rulemaking: An Assessment of Regulatory Agency Websites (April 11, 2007). U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 07-15, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=980247 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.980247

Stuart Shapiro

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

New Brunswick, NJ 08901
United States

Cary Coglianese (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School ( email )

3501 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
215-898-6867 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.upenn.edu/coglianese

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