RegData 2.2: A Panel Dataset on US Federal Regulations

How much regulation exists? Can short- and long-term growth trends in regulation be identified? Which agencies produce the most regulation? Are some sectors of the economy more regulated than others, and how big are the differences? RegData 2.2, a recent panel dataset from the RegData Project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, offers answers to these questions and more. RegData 2.2 quantifies various aspects of US federal regulations by industry, by agency, and over time. The resulting datasets include metrics on volumes, restrictiveness, and relevance of federal regulations to different economic sectors and industries. RegData datasets are publicly released at http://quantgov.org. We explain the features of and methodology underlying RegData 2.2.