CSLS Speaker Series – Harmonizing Safety: The Politics of Occupational Exposure Limits in the EU

Featuring Rebecca Perlman, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley 

Abstract: When countries with divergent regulations harmonize their rules, what determines which rules get harmonized and at what level? We study this through an investigation of the EU’s harmonization of occupational exposure limits — rules dictating allowable levels of chemicals in the workplace. We introduce extensive historical data that let us observe the standards EU countries had in place prior to harmonization. This not only allows us to create a denominator of all the rules that could have been harmonized, but by merging in product-level information it makes it possible to investigate the conditions under which countries receive their preferred outcomes. Finally, we draw on extensive expert interviews to elucidate mechanisms. Our findings demonstrate how safety and competitiveness concerns interact to determine which national standards receive an international counterpart. In addition, we show that when it comes to winning one’s preferred standards, national influence matters, yet even the influential must prioritize.