Administrative Burden Spillovers: How Burden Experiences and Identity Mismatch are Related to Future Individual-State Interactions

• In Event: New Research on Administrative Burdens

Abstract

Administrative burdens are the onerous experiences encountered during policy implementation (Moynihan, Herd, & Harvey, 2015; Herd & Moynihan, 2018). They include three types of costs: compliance costs, learning costs, and psychological costs (Moynihan, Herd, & Harvey, 2015; Herd & Moynihan, 2018), and shape individuals’ access to public services (see Heinrich, 2016; Heinrich, 2018; Baekgaard & Tankink, 2021; Barnes, Halpern-Meekin & Hoiting, 2023). Burdens are disproportionately imposed on marginalized populations (Ray, Herd, & Moynihan, 2023; Bell & Jilke, 2024; Bell, Wright, & Oh, 2024; Herd & Moynihan, 2025), which especially holds for transgender individuals who frequently face identity-based exclusion. While prior research documents these inequities (Nisar, 2018; Khurana, 2025; Sederbaum, upcoming), far less is known about how burdens experienced in prior state interactions are related to transgender individuals’ future interactions with the state. 

This study aims to address this gap by examining potential spillover patterns in prior institutional interactions among transgender individuals and their future state encounters, focusing on how experiences of identity-based marginalization and institutional discrimination are associated with longer-term patterns of engagement with the state. Using the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey collected by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), the analysis examines how administrative burdens and identity document mismatch shape transgender individuals’ engagement with public programs and political participation. 

Preliminary results suggest two key findings. First, negative institutional experiences in everyday interactions, such as experiences related to bathroom access, are associated with higher levels of political participation. Second, the relationship between identity document mismatch and political participation is conditional on individuals’ prior burdensome experiences with name changes in court. In particular, when individuals encounter negative or intrusive interactions in court processes, ID mismatch is associated with increased participation in political activities, suggesting that these experiences may, in some cases, encourage rather than suppress participation. However, the preliminary analyses find no evidence of these patterns among transgender people of color.

Author

• Mingxu Emma Li, Florida State University
  Presenting Author