Enforcement and Compliance Decisions under OSHA and EPA Regulation

在过去的几年里，有许多关于监管执法过程的人种学或定性案例研究。虽然有帮助，但这些研究并没有对监管执法实践与合规之间的关系提供系统的、基于经验的分析。此外，很少有广泛的定量研究表明可衡量的政治和经济变量如何影响执法技术和遵守程度。这项研究将收集与这些问题有关的宝贵数据，并提供有关因素之间统计关系的有用映射。该项目将审查与两个监管机构的四个监管计划有关的合规和执行决定：职业安全与健康管理局对工人健康和工人安全的监管，环境保护局对水污染和空气污染的监管。将编制两套经济和管制变量数据，涵盖1973年至1986年期间。第一个数据集将包含450个行业，涵盖制造业。第二个数据集将包含三个制造业的公司和工厂级数据。分析将允许同时估计机构如何在公司之间分配其执行力的决定，以及公司是否遵守机构规定的决定。这两项决定都取决于观察到的经济、政治和技术因素。这项研究的结果将为我们理解监管者的执法活动与他们所监管的公司的合规决策之间的相互作用提供重要的贡献。除了提供有关监管机构的行为和影响以及法律遵从性的理论外，研究结果还可能指出机构如何提高其执法策略的效率，在现有资源的情况下获得更大的遵从性，并最终提高生产率。此外，将要编制的数据库将是关于类似题目的进一步研究项目的宝贵工具。

Over the past several years, there have been numerous ethnographic or qualitative case studies of regulatory enforcement processes. Although helpful, such studies have not provided systematic, empirically-grounded analyses of the relationship between regulatory enforcement practices and compliance. Moreover, there are few wide-ranging quantitative studies indicating how measurable political and economic variables affect enforcement techniques and compliance levels. This study will amass valuable data relevant to these issues and provide a useful mapping of statistical relationships among relevant factors. The project will examine the compliance and enforcement decisions related to four regulatory programs in two regulatory agencies: regulation of worker health and worker safety by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and regulation of water pollution and air pollution by the Environmental Protection Agency. Two data sets of economic and regulatory variables will be created covering the period from 1973 to 1986. The first dataset will contain 450 industries, covering the manufacturing sector. The second dataset will contain company and plant-level data for three manufacturing industries. The analysis will allow for simultaneous estimation of the agency's decision of how to allocate its enforcement across firms and the firm's decision of whether or not to comply with the agency's regulations. Both decisions will depend on observed economic, political, and technological factors. The results of this research should provide a significant contribution to our understanding of the interaction between enforcement activities of regulators and compliance decisions of the firms they regulate. Beyond contributing to theory on the behavior and impact of regulatory agencies and legal compliance, the results may indicate ways in which agencies can improve the efficiency of their enforcement strategies, gaining greater compliance given their available resources, and, ultimately, improving productivity. In addition, the databases to be prepared will be a valuable tool for further research projects on similar topics.