Bureaucratic rulemaking is a key feature of American policymaking. However, rulemaking activities do not occur uniformly, but fluctuate throughout the year. We consider three mechanisms to explain these changes in rule volume, each of which produces unique expectations for rulemaking during periods of divided government and legislative recess. To test these expectations, we leverage an original dataset including all rules proposed by bureaucratic agencies in three U.S. states from 2004 to 2013 matched with data tracking periods of divided government and legislative recess. We find that state bureaucracies publish significantly more proposed rules during periods of divided government or a split legislature and are most productive in the months immediately following legislative recess. These results underscore the importance of bureaucratic policymaking and improve our understanding of the balance of power between branches of state governments.

中文翻译：

---

各州的监管时机：政府分裂和立法休会的作用

官僚规则制定是美国决策的一个关键特征。然而，规则制定活动并不是均匀发生的，而是全年波动的。我们考虑三种机制来解释规则数量的这些变化，每种机制都会在政府分裂和立法休会期间对规则制定产生独特的期望。为了测试这些预期，我们利用原始数据集，其中包括 2004 年至 2013 年美国三个州官僚机构提出的所有规则，并与政府分裂和立法休会期间的数据跟踪相匹配。我们发现，在政府分裂或立法机关分裂期间，州官僚机构会发布更多的拟议规则，并且在立法休会后的几个月内最为富有成效。这些结果强调了官僚决策的重要性，并提高了我们对州政府部门之间权力平衡的理解。