Poster #64 - Institutional Isomorphism or Divergence of Administrative Burdens: How Administrative Burdens are Enforced on Third-Party Service Providers

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

The implementation of formal and intentional administrative burden on third-party providers is a critical yet underexplored area, especially from the perspective of governmental oversight agencies. This article explores the use of administrative burdens on third-party providers, focusing on institutional mechanisms of isomorphic and divergent that influence the enforcement of noncompliance costs by divisions in a monitoring agency. Using administrative data of abortion providers from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (FAHCA), this study examines sanction proclivity among FAHCA’s 11 different field offices from 2010 to 2023. The results of the dyadic diffusion models suggest that the use of burdensome administrative sanctions (administrative burdens in the interactions between states and the third-parties) can be explained by the coercive and normative mechanisms of institutional isomorphism, although the mimetic mechanism shows mixed results. Field offices are more likely to emulate institutional templates that have imposed harsher sanctions, as well as those that have imposed a broader range of administrative sanctions. These findings have important implications for understanding how administrative burdens spread across government oversight field offices. They offer valuable insights into the mechanisms behind enforcing these hidden politics, and may help mitigate administrative burdens on third parties, ultimately improving their ability to deliver better services to individuals. 

Author

• Mingxu Emma Li, Florida State University
  Presenting Author