Explaining and Measuring Learning in Regulatory Policy

Abstract

Recent reviews of regulatory policy have suggested that learning is a promising perspective for the analysis of regulation and its governance implications. Papers in this panel will approach regulatory policy with particular emphasis on two elements of research design where progress has been patchy in this field, that is, explanatory models and measurement issues. We invite proposals on explanations of why learning occurs or does not occur, drawing on political science, socio-legal studies, analytical sociology, diffusion theory and cognitive-evolutionary economics. Papers looking at the meta-theoretical foundations of existing explanatory models are also welcome. On measurement, we invite proposals on research designs that reduce the well-known sources of bias in establishing causality and the presence-absence of learning. The aim is to present and discuss innovative methods. The panel is sponsored by the project Alreg, Analysis of Learning in Regulatory Governance (http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/ceg/research/ALREG/index.php).