Hollow Government: Resource Constraints and Workload Expansion at the Food and Drug Administration [redacted version]

Abstract

This paper will examine the phenomenon of hollow government at the Food and Drug Administration during the 1990s. First, it will develop the concept of hollow government, describing its causes and effects and providing examples from other agencies. Next, because it is impossible to grasp the ramifications of organizational hollowing at FDA during the 1990s without understanding how the agency fared during the 1980s, the paper will provide the essential context. Then, it will proceed with a general assessment of the situation of the agency as a whole during the 1990s, followed by an in-depth assessment of changes in the workload and resources at each of the five major program Centers located within FDA. Finally, the paper will interpret the results of the empirical analysis to determine the degree to which FDA has experienced “hollowing†over the past decade.