As I have noted, my interest in this topic grows largely out of my experience as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) under President Barack Obama. I am immensely grateful to my colleagues at the time, and above all to the extraordinary staff of OIRA, for teaching me so much about paperwork burdens and information collections and about what might be done in response.
I have been working with Richard Thaler, a great friend and coauthor, for many years, and he has been instrumental in exploring the problem of sludge. Few things in life are certain, but it is certain that this book would not exist without him. Special thanks too to Cait Lamberton, who first used the term, both for her originality and for valuable discussions. Conversations with Lucia Reisch and Dilip Sloman have been extremely helpful.
I have also been much influenced by three wonderful books that overlap with this one. Scarcity (2016), by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, focuses brilliantly on the problem of cognitive scarcity, or limited bandwidth, and applies the problem to paperwork and other burdens. Administrative Burden (2019), by Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan, is an extraordinarily valuable exploration of the effects of such burdens on the operations of government in particular. Life Admin (2019), by Elizabeth Emens, is a lively, wide-ranging, and immensely instructive discussion of many of the tedious tasks of modern life and of the inefficiencies and unfairnesses for which they are responsible. I know that I have not seen further than others, but this little book certainly stands on the shoulders of giants.
Four anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments that greatly improved the manuscript. Emily Taber was, and is, a tremendous editor, and her keen eye made this book much better than it would otherwise be. Thanks to Harvard Law School, and in particular the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, for valuable support. Lia Cattaneo, Dinis Cheian, Christopher Cruz, Eli Nachmany, and Lukas Roth provided superb research assistance. Sarah Chalfant, my agent, provided indispensable guidance on the project. Kathleen Caruso shepherded the book to completion, minimizing sludge in the process, and Melinda Rankin did a terrific copyedit.
I have drawn here on two essays: Sludge and Ordeals, 68 Duke L.J. 1843 (2019); and Sludge Audits, Behav. Pub. Pol’y (2020). I am grateful to both journals for permission to do that here.