The U.S. federal government often devolves administrative processes and decision making to state and local governments. Prior studies have found that the success of decentralization and implementation depends on several mediating factors at the subnational level, such as a state's political ideology or administrative capacity. This study focuses on one mechanism—the ability of states to leverage their information advantage about the local context vis-à-vis the federal government. We are interested in whether the information advantage of state-level firearm background checks decreased the rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) involving a firearm compared to states that relied on federally administered background checks. We take advantage of data from the period of state-mandated stay-at-home (SAH) orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporal context with increased IPV rates. Using a Poisson fixed effects regression, we find that rates of IPV involving a firearm did not increase when the SAH orders were in effect. However, using decision-relevant information in state-administered background checks decreased the rates of IPV resulting in injury and murder-suicide, compared to states that relied on federal background checks.

中文翻译：

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行政权力下放和信息的作用：COVID-19 大流行期间亲密伴侣暴力案例

美国联邦政府经常将行政程序和决策权下放给州和地方政府。先前的研究发现，权力下放和实施的成功取决于国家以下各级的几个中介因素，例如国家的政治意识形态或行政能力。本研究重点关注一种机制——各州相对于联邦政府利用其有关当地情况的信息优势的能力。我们感兴趣的是，与依赖联邦政府管理的背景调查的州相比，州级枪支背景调查的信息优势是否降低了涉及枪支的亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）的发生率。我们利用了 COVID-19 大流行期间国家强制居家令 (SAH) 期间的数据，这是 IPV 率增加的时间背景。使用泊松固定效应回归，我们发现，当 SAH 命令生效时，涉及枪支的 IPV 比率并未增加。然而，与依赖联邦背景调查的州相比，在州管理的背景调查中使用决策相关信息降低了 IPV 导致伤害和谋杀自杀的比率。