E-Government and Regulation

This report was prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, under Contract No. L-6830-8-00-80-30, Task Order No. 9. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the U.S. Department of Labor or to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

Table of Contents

I. Executive Summary

II. Introduction
A. Scope of this report
B. Defining compliance assistance
C. General approach and study limits
D. From deterrence to compliance assistance
E. E-government and compliance assistance: limited knowledge
F. Overview of findings

II. Research Approach
A. Overall data collection
B. Region selection
C. Firm selection
D. Third-party intermediary selection
E. Review of web-based compliance assistance in other agencies
F. Literature review
G. Site visit and National Call Center data review

III. Findings
A. Firm use of DOL compliance assistance
B. Third-party intermediary use of web-based compliance assistance
C. Web-based compliance in other federal and state agencies
D. State agency links to DOL's compliance assistance
E. Results of Internet site visit and National Call Center data

IV. Conclusions and Recommendations

V. Annotated Bibliography
A. Index of selected articles by topic
B. Compliance assistance articles
C. Reviews of compliance assistance tools
D. E-government trends
E. Regulation on the Internet
F. Regulatory reform: administrative management
G. Regulatory reform: incentive regulation
H. Regulatory reform: wage and hour compliance
I. Regulatory reform: OSHA compliance

VI. E-government Resources

VII. Bibliography

I. Executive Summary

In the mid-1990s the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began developing a set of web-based resources intended to increase information on Department rules and regulations and compliance with them among regulated entities. Over time the Internet initiative has become a key component of the Department's broad efforts to promote compliance assistance as a means of increasing regulations' effectiveness while limiting their cost to government and to regulated firms.

In 2001 the Department contracted with The Urban Institute to conduct a preliminary study of regulated firms' awareness of the web-based tools and perceptions of their effectiveness. To that end, Urban Institute researchers held structured discussions with regulated firms and selected private third parties that provide compliance assistance (such as safety experts and industry associations). The Urban Institute also reviewed compliance assistance initiatives on web sites maintained by other federal agencies and conducted a literature review on regulatory reform, compliance assistance and e-government. The project's focus was regulatory regimes administered by the Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

While much has been written about the need for regulatory reform and about e-government, very little is written—or known—about the use of e-government tools to achieve the goals of regulatory reform (i.e., greater efficiency, lower compliance costs, and reduced conflict). Because of the limited number of firms examined (38), the results presented here should be viewed as preliminary and taken as a point of departure in understanding the reach and effectiveness of these web-based tools.

Our principal findings were that a surprisingly larger share (60 percent) of the firms we contacted use e-government to learn about government rules. We also found that many of the respondents who used these tools used them in conjunction with safety experts or other private parties who provide compliance guidance. These third-party intermediaries were also extensive users of DOL's web-based tools.

Not surprisingly, there had been comparatively little systematic evaluation of web-based compliance assistance tools at the time of our study. We suggested that a method of obtaining user feedback be embedded in the tools to assess their perceived effectiveness among users.

Further, given the continued reliance of firms on third-party intermediaries, we suggested further study of their characteristics, the roles they play, and the ways third-party services could be leveraged by DOL. Firms' continued reliance on these intermediaries also pointed to another issue for further study: whether compliance assistance generates savings, and if so, who captures them—regulated firms, third parties, or both.

Finally, while the emphasis on the use of web-based tools has been on employer compliance, it appears that more concerted efforts to make the tools available to employees might also promote increased levels of firm level compliance.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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