📊 Data: Tracking US Agrochemical Rules (1996–2015)

This study examines how international standards affect domestic regulation, with an empirical focus on agrochemicals. Original data capture changes to US agrochemical regulations across the period 1996–2015 to assess whether and how domestic rules shifted in response to international standards.

🔎 What the analysis tests and why it matters

• Tests whether international standards act as a regulatory ceiling that undermines domestic protections or instead shape domestic choices in other ways
• Addresses a gap in the literature: while globalization’s domestic effects have been studied broadly, few works evaluate the specific influence of international standards

🧭 Key Findings

• Little evidence that international standards primarily function as a ceiling that forces countries to weaken domestic rules
• Instead, international standards often operate as focal points that can pull nations toward either greater leniency or greater stringency
• These patterns come from empirical comparisons of US regulatory changes to the content and timing of relevant international standards

🌐 Why This Matters

• Findings refine understanding of how global regulatory frameworks interact with domestic policy choices and contribute directly to debates about the domestic consequences of globalization
• Results also allay concerns that international standards necessarily cap regulation and push countries to sacrifice safety or environmental caution for economic gain

🔎 Contribution

• Provides original, sector-specific evidence on the domestic impact of international standards
• Demonstrates that the influence of international standards is directional but not uniformly deregulatory, highlighting the role of standards as coordination points rather than automatic limits on policy ambition.