Dunlop, C. A. and Radaelli, C. M. (eds) (2016) 'Handbook of Regulatory Impact Assessment' Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (original) (raw)
Related papers
Regulatory Impact Assessment in Policy-Making
Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) represents a critical process in modern governance, aimed at evaluating the potential impacts of regulations before they are enacted. This discussion explores RIA’s role, theoretical underpinnings, practical challenges, and its international dimensions.
Regulation and Governance, 2012
Research on regulation has crossed paths with the literature on policy instruments, showing that regulatory policy instruments contain cognitive and normative beliefs about policy. Thus, their usage stacks the deck in favour of one type of actor or one type of regulatory solution. In this article, we challenge the assumption that there is a pre-determined relationship between ideas, regulatory policy instruments and outcomes. We argue that different combinations of conditions lead to different outcomes, depending on how actors use the instrument. Empirically, we analyze 31 EU and UK case studies of regulatory impact assessment (RIA) – a regulatory policy instrument that has been pivotal in the so-called better regulation movement. We distinguish four main usages of RIA, that is, political, instrumental, communicative, and perfunctory. We find that in our sample instrumental usage is not so rare and that the contrast between communicative and political usages is less stark than is commonly thought. In terms of policy recommendations, our analysis suggests that there may be different paths to desirable outcomes. Policy makers should therefore explore different combinations of conditions leading to the usages they deem desirable rather than arguing for a fixed menu of variables.
Comparing the Content of Regulatory Impact Assessments in the UK and the EU
Public Money & Management, 2013
This paper examines the content of impact assessments (IAs) in the European Commission (EC) and the UK for the period 2005 to 2010. We coded 477 IAs for the UK and 296 for the EC, using a detailed scorecard. The findings suggest that IA is not a perfunctory activity in the European Union and the UK. The breadth of consultation and economic analysis has improved steadily across the years, arguably as a result of learning and regulatory oversight. The UK and the EC are strikingly similar on a number of dimensions (such as economic analysis and identification of costs and benefits). However, the IAs of the EC seem to pay more attention to social and environmental dimensions. The conclusions reflect on the implications of the authors’ findings for current policy discussions concerning regulatory quality and the role of regulatory oversight bodies.
Regulatory impact assessment: Formal institutionalization and practice
Journal of Public Policy, 30(01), 117-136., 2010
Regulatory reforms in Europe and the OECD in the last decade have focused on efforts to improve regulatory quality. As part of that development, political and administrative decision-makers have been encouraged to consider fiscal, socio-economic and other effects of proposed legislation when making policy choices. The Central and Eastern European EU member states adopted such regulatory impact analysis (RIA) mechanisms in the early 2000s but, so far, there has been little analysis of the implementation of RIAs conducted in these countries. This article compares, first, the manner in which RIA has been institutionalised in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Second, it explores how differences in institutionalisation have affected RIA performance. The paper argues that there are marked differences in the RIA quality across Central and Eastern Europe, notably as a consequence of differences in institutional and administrative contexts and capacities.
Towards Developing Policy Impact Assessment Framework: An Introduction
Policy impact assessment has received little attention in current discussion on impact assessment frameworks within the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), the leading global organisation on impact assessment for informed decision-making. While there are accepted guidelines for strategic environmental assessments, social impact assessments (SIAs) and health impact assessments, there appear to be various siloed policy impact assessment (PIA) guidelines, mainly drawing on programme evaluation models. The lack of a PIA framework means that SIA professionals working on public policies and programmes have to adapt existing impact assessment frameworks or look elsewhere, however discrepant the field. This can create validation problems when comparing studies from different jurisdictions. This paper is an introduction to discussions on the need to develop a PIA framework within the IAIA, and argues that relevant policy analysis models could be drawn on and developed into one coherent but adaptable IAIA-led PIA framework.
Towards an ‘Impact Assessment State’in Europe
2006
ABSTRACT Over the last five years or so, regulatory impact assessment (RIA) has been introduced in many European countries' administrative and law making process. Up until 2001, only a handful of EU member states had experience of impact assessment. Now practically all EU member states report that RIA is either at the pilot stage or well embedded in the policy process.