Participation and Regulatory Compliance in Vietnam

Our project will assess Vietnam’s current process for participation by firms in the drafting of new business regulations, testing whether this participation can improve labor rights and safety. We will use an RCT to analyze downstream compliance with a chemical storage regulation of four randomly assigned treatment groups 1) firms simply informed about the draft regulation; 2) firms invited to comment on the draft regulation; 3) firms invited to comment and subsequently notified that their comments will be highlighted to the drafting committee; and 4) a control group receiving only a placebo. After the final regulation is promulgated, the team will monitor the firms in all four groups to test compliance with the final legislation. Because safety requirements for hazardous chemicals are readily observable, we will have clear evidence of whether participation led to downstream compliance and which of the three mechanisms is most responsible.