Christopher Carrigan
Biographic Data
| ID | 3876217 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher Carrigan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher |
| FAMILY NAME | Carrigan |
| SIGNATURE | CARRIGAN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Washington University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
In the Midnight Hour: Participatory Opportunities in Regulatory Policymaking During Presidential Transitions
We examine opportunities for stakeholder participation in regulatory policymaking in the U.S. during the midnight period, the 3 months between the presidential election in November and the inauguration of the winning candidate the following January. During partisan presidential transitions, do agencies—in a sprint to the regulatory finish line—limit stakeholder participation? We develop a novel typology of midnight regulations and construct an or…
Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk
This paper explores the role of microeconomic analysis in policy formulation by assessing how the regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) that federal regulatory agencies prepare for important proposed rules may affect outcomes when regulations are challenged in court. Conventional wisdom among economists and senior regulatory officials in federal agencies suggests that high-quality economic analysis can help a regulation survive such challenges, parti…
Dynamic Benefit-Cost Analysis for Uncertain Futures
“Uncertain futures” refers to a set of policy problems that possess some combination of the following characteristics: (i) they potentially cause irreversible changes; (ii) they are widespread, so that policy responses may make sense only on a global scale; (iii) network effects are difficult to understand and may amplify (or moderate) consequences; (iv) time horizons are long; and (v) the likelihood of catastrophic outcomes is unknown or even un…
Organizational Process, Rulemaking Pace, and the Shadow of Judicial Review
Scholars have long understood that structuring internal work processes into more hierarchical or team‐based arrangements has consequences for organizational outputs. Building on this insight, this research examines the relationship between how agencies organize their rulemaking routines and the resulting rules. Tracking the job functions of rule contacts for economically significant rules proposed over a four‐year period, the analysis demonstrate…
Pursuing Consilience: Using Behavioral Public Administration to Connect Research on Bureaucratic Red Tape, Administrative Burden, and Regulation
Behavioral public administration (BPA) research aspires not only to draw on developments in behavioral science but also, importantly, to address central themes in public administration. By focusing a symposium on bureaucratic red tape, administrative burden, and regulation, we encouraged BPA scholarship to engage with fundamental public administration topics that are also relevant for the broader literature on organizations and management. Indeed…
The Accountability State: U.S. Federal Inspectors General and the Pursuit of Democratic Integrity
At the center of almost every scandal that befalls a U.S. agency is its inspector general (IG), who is often the reason the problems are revealed in the first place. And yet, given their importance in uncovering bureaucratic failures and diagnosing why they occurred, it is remarkable how little scholarly attention IGs have received in the public administration and bureaucratic politics literatures. Nadia Hilliard’s book, The Accountability State:…
Unpacking the Effects of Competing Mandates on Agency Performance
Public administration scholars and practitioners uniformly agree that saddling agencies with multiple mandates breeds dysfunction and impedes performance. However, less is known about the mechanisms by which combining purposes has these effects. This study of a broad set of U.S. federal agencies finds support for the conventional wisdom by showing that agencies balancing greater numbers of programs perform worse. The analysis further suggests tha…
Clarity or collaboration: Balancing competing aims in bureaucratic design
Following the Gulf oil spill and US housing meltdown, policy-makers revamped the associated administrative infrastructure in an effort to sharpen each agency’s focus, based on the perspective that asking an organization to fulfill competing missions undermines performance. Using a formal model, I demonstrate that priority goal ambiguity introduced when an agency balances multiple roles does have detrimental effects. Yet, assigning competing missi…
Consumer’s Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis: Ten Tips for Being an Informed Policymaker
Regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) weigh the benefits of regulations against the burdens they impose and are invaluable tools for informing decision makers. We offer 10 tips for nonspecialist policymakers and interested stakeholders who will be reading RIAs as consumers. 1. Core problem: Determine whether the RIA identifies the core problem (compelling public need) the regulation is intended to address. 2. Alternatives: Look for an objective, poli…
What's wrong with the back of the envelope? A call for simple (and timely) benefit–cost analysis
Observers across the ideological spectrum have criticized benefit–cost analysis for as long as it has been part of the rulemaking process. Still, proponents and detractors agree that analysis has morphed into a mechanism often used by agencies to justify regulatory decisions already made. We argue that a simpler analysis of more alternatives conducted earlier in the regulatory process can resuscitate it as a tool to inform policy. Recognizing tha…
The Politics of Regulation: From New Institutionalism to New Governance
The study of the politics of regulation has followed two distinct paths in recent years. “New institutionalism” research has focused primarily on the policy-making process, particularly the interplay between regulators (who implement policy) and their political principals (who attempt to control regulators' activity). In contrast, “new governance” scholarship has focused on strategies other than traditional “command-and-control” regulation that c…
The Politics of Regulation: From New Institutionalism to New Governance
The study of the politics of regulation has followed two distinct paths in recent years. “New institutionalism” research has focused primarily on the policy-making process, particularly the interplay between regulators (who implement policy) and their political principals (who attempt to control regulators' activity). In contrast, “new governance” scholarship has focused on strategies other than traditional “command-and-control” regulation that c…
What's wrong with the back of the envelope? A call for simple (and timely) benefit–cost analysis
Observers across the ideological spectrum have criticized benefit–cost analysis for as long as it has been part of the rulemaking process. Still, proponents and detractors agree that analysis has morphed into a mechanism often used by agencies to justify regulatory decisions already made. We argue that a simpler analysis of more alternatives conducted earlier in the regulatory process can resuscitate it as a tool to inform policy. Recognizing tha…
Organizational Process, Rulemaking Pace, and the Shadow of Judicial Review
Scholars have long understood that structuring internal work processes into more hierarchical or team‐based arrangements has consequences for organizational outputs. Building on this insight, this research examines the relationship between how agencies organize their rulemaking routines and the resulting rules. Tracking the job functions of rule contacts for economically significant rules proposed over a four‐year period, the analysis demonstrate…
Consumer’s Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis: Ten Tips for Being an Informed Policymaker
Regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) weigh the benefits of regulations against the burdens they impose and are invaluable tools for informing decision makers. We offer 10 tips for nonspecialist policymakers and interested stakeholders who will be reading RIAs as consumers. 1. Core problem: Determine whether the RIA identifies the core problem (compelling public need) the regulation is intended to address. 2. Alternatives: Look for an objective, poli…
Dynamic Benefit-Cost Analysis for Uncertain Futures
“Uncertain futures” refers to a set of policy problems that possess some combination of the following characteristics: (i) they potentially cause irreversible changes; (ii) they are widespread, so that policy responses may make sense only on a global scale; (iii) network effects are difficult to understand and may amplify (or moderate) consequences; (iv) time horizons are long; and (v) the likelihood of catastrophic outcomes is unknown or even un…
Clarity or collaboration: Balancing competing aims in bureaucratic design
Following the Gulf oil spill and US housing meltdown, policy-makers revamped the associated administrative infrastructure in an effort to sharpen each agency’s focus, based on the perspective that asking an organization to fulfill competing missions undermines performance. Using a formal model, I demonstrate that priority goal ambiguity introduced when an agency balances multiple roles does have detrimental effects. Yet, assigning competing missi…
The Politics of Regulation: From New Institutionalism to New Governance
The study of the politics of regulation has followed two distinct paths in recent years. “New institutionalism” research has focused primarily on the policy-making process, particularly the interplay between regulators (who implement policy) and their political principals (who attempt to control regulators' activity). In contrast, “new governance” scholarship has focused on strategies other than traditional “command-and-control” regulation that c…
Consumer’s Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis: Ten Tips for Being an Informed Policymaker
Regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) weigh the benefits of regulations against the burdens they impose and are invaluable tools for informing decision makers. We offer 10 tips for nonspecialist policymakers and interested stakeholders who will be reading RIAs as consumers. 1. Core problem: Determine whether the RIA identifies the core problem (compelling public need) the regulation is intended to address. 2. Alternatives: Look for an objective, poli…
What's wrong with the back of the envelope? A call for simple (and timely) benefit–cost analysis
Observers across the ideological spectrum have criticized benefit–cost analysis for as long as it has been part of the rulemaking process. Still, proponents and detractors agree that analysis has morphed into a mechanism often used by agencies to justify regulatory decisions already made. We argue that a simpler analysis of more alternatives conducted earlier in the regulatory process can resuscitate it as a tool to inform policy. Recognizing tha…
The Accountability State: U.S. Federal Inspectors General and the Pursuit of Democratic Integrity
At the center of almost every scandal that befalls a U.S. agency is its inspector general (IG), who is often the reason the problems are revealed in the first place. And yet, given their importance in uncovering bureaucratic failures and diagnosing why they occurred, it is remarkable how little scholarly attention IGs have received in the public administration and bureaucratic politics literatures. Nadia Hilliard’s book, The Accountability State:…
Unpacking the Effects of Competing Mandates on Agency Performance
Public administration scholars and practitioners uniformly agree that saddling agencies with multiple mandates breeds dysfunction and impedes performance. However, less is known about the mechanisms by which combining purposes has these effects. This study of a broad set of U.S. federal agencies finds support for the conventional wisdom by showing that agencies balancing greater numbers of programs perform worse. The analysis further suggests tha…
Clarity or collaboration: Balancing competing aims in bureaucratic design
Following the Gulf oil spill and US housing meltdown, policy-makers revamped the associated administrative infrastructure in an effort to sharpen each agency’s focus, based on the perspective that asking an organization to fulfill competing missions undermines performance. Using a formal model, I demonstrate that priority goal ambiguity introduced when an agency balances multiple roles does have detrimental effects. Yet, assigning competing missi…
Dynamic Benefit-Cost Analysis for Uncertain Futures
“Uncertain futures” refers to a set of policy problems that possess some combination of the following characteristics: (i) they potentially cause irreversible changes; (ii) they are widespread, so that policy responses may make sense only on a global scale; (iii) network effects are difficult to understand and may amplify (or moderate) consequences; (iv) time horizons are long; and (v) the likelihood of catastrophic outcomes is unknown or even un…
Organizational Process, Rulemaking Pace, and the Shadow of Judicial Review
Scholars have long understood that structuring internal work processes into more hierarchical or team‐based arrangements has consequences for organizational outputs. Building on this insight, this research examines the relationship between how agencies organize their rulemaking routines and the resulting rules. Tracking the job functions of rule contacts for economically significant rules proposed over a four‐year period, the analysis demonstrate…
Pursuing Consilience: Using Behavioral Public Administration to Connect Research on Bureaucratic Red Tape, Administrative Burden, and Regulation
Behavioral public administration (BPA) research aspires not only to draw on developments in behavioral science but also, importantly, to address central themes in public administration. By focusing a symposium on bureaucratic red tape, administrative burden, and regulation, we encouraged BPA scholarship to engage with fundamental public administration topics that are also relevant for the broader literature on organizations and management. Indeed…
Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk
This paper explores the role of microeconomic analysis in policy formulation by assessing how the regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) that federal regulatory agencies prepare for important proposed rules may affect outcomes when regulations are challenged in court. Conventional wisdom among economists and senior regulatory officials in federal agencies suggests that high-quality economic analysis can help a regulation survive such challenges, parti…
In the Midnight Hour: Participatory Opportunities in Regulatory Policymaking During Presidential Transitions
We examine opportunities for stakeholder participation in regulatory policymaking in the U.S. during the midnight period, the 3 months between the presidential election in November and the inauguration of the winning candidate the following January. During partisan presidential transitions, do agencies—in a sprint to the regulatory finish line—limit stakeholder participation? We develop a novel typology of midnight regulations and construct an or…
Political science (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Regulation and Compliance Studies (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Public Administration (5 works) · Public Administration (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Economics (4 works)