The midnight regulation phenomenon is not new or limited to one political party. New research suggests that midnight regulations proposed during the second half of a presidential election year are more likely to have lower-quality regulatory analysis and less likely to use the results of analysis to inform decisions. Thus, these regulations may be particularly costly or ineffective.

Is the midnight regulations phenomenon real and what are its consequences? This paper finds that when an administration’s time is almost up, submissions of economically significant regulations nearly double. Such surges in regulatory activity decrease the duration of regulatory review at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), likely because of political pressure to quickly approve new rules. Specifically, one additional economically significant regulation submitted to OIRA decreases the mean review time for all regulations by about two thirds of a day. If OIRA review improves regulation quality, then regulatory surges that decrease review time could hinder such improvement.

In this Mercatus Policy Series, Senior Research Fellows Veronique de Rugy and Jerry Brito provide an extensive analysis of midnight regulations. In addition to examining the motivations and…

Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy addresses the phenomenon of "midnight regulation." She presents data that demonstrates a clear growth in regulation at the end of past presidential…