Regulatory Impact Assessment in Comparative Perspective

This three-year project (February 2006 – February 2009) examines regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in a comparative framework covering six countries (Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and USA) and the European Union. RIA is the most important component of regulatory reform in Britain and most OECD countries. At EU-level, it is a priority within the Growth and Jobs Agenda.

The project is carried out by Claudio Radaelli, with research assistance provided by Fabrizio De Francesco. The aim of this project is to provide original evidence on how RIA is performed, and examine its efficiency, credibility and legitimacy in a comparative framework. The project tests rival alternative hypotheses on the consequences of RIA drawn from theories of regulation, namely (a) political control of the bureaucracy, (b) different types of learning, (c) administrative modernization and (d) symbolic politics.

What is Impact Assessment?

RIA (Regulatory Impact Assessment) or simply Impact Assessment is a systematic and mandatory appraisal of how proposed primary and-or secondary legislation will affect certain categories of stakeholders, economic sectors, and the environment. “Systematic” means coherent and not episodic or random. “Mandatory” means that it is not a voluntary activity. Essentially, RIA is a type of administrative procedure, often used in the pre-legislative scrutiny of legislation.
Its complexity and analytic breadth vary, depending on the issues at stake and the resources available - the degree of complexity should be proportional to the salience and expected effects of the regulation. Indeed, the expected effects analysed via RIA may cover administrative burdens or basic compliance costs, or more complex types of costs and benefits, including environmental benefits, distributional effects, and the impact on trade. The scope of economic activities covered by RIA ranges from some types of firms to whole economic sectors, competitiveness and the overall economic impact of regulations. RIA can also be used to appraise the effects of proposed regulations on public administration (e.g., other departments, schools, hospitals, prisons, universities) and sub-national governments. Although RIA is often used to estimate the impact of proposed regulation, it can be used to examine the effects of regulations that are currently in force, for example with the aim of eliminating some burdensome features of existing regulations or to choose the most effective way to simplify regulations.

Final Conference - 15 January 2009

Conference Programme
List of Participants (of final conference 15 January 2009)
Photos from the conference

Regulatory Impact Assessment in Comparitive Perspective - Report on project December 2008

Publications and Working Papers

Regulatory management training, Claudio Radaelli, November 2008

Conflict management in EU regulation, Burkard Eberlein and Claudio M. Radaelli

Regulatory impact assessment – literature review, Claudio Radaelli and Fabrizio De Francesco

Measuring the quality of impact assessment, Claudio Radaelli and Anne Meuwese (Evia project) November 2008

The Political economy of impact assessment, Claudio Radaelli and Anne Meuwese (Evia project) November 2008

What do Governments get out of Regulatory Reform? The Case of Regulatory Impact Assessment, Claudio Radaelli (6-9 August 2008)

Better Regulation in Europe: Between Public Management and Regulatory Reform Claudio Radaelli and Anne Meuwese (25 June 2008)

Hard Questions, and Equally Hard Solutions? Proceduralization Through Impact Assessment in the European Union, Claudio Radaelli and Anne Meuwese (28-29 May 2008)

Evidence-Based Policy and Political Control: What Does Regulatory Impact Assessment Tell Us? Claudio Radaelli (11-16 April 2008)

The Implementation of Regulatory Impact Assessment in Europe, Claudio Radaelli, Fabrizio de Francesco, Vera Troeger (27-28 March 2008)

Improving the Practise of Impact Assessment, Klaus Jacob, Julia Hertin, Peter Hjerp, Claudio Radaelli, Anne Meuwese, Oliver Wolf, Carolina Pacchi and Klaus Rennings (February 2008)

Measuring Policy Learning Across Europe: Regulatory Impact Assessment in Comparative Perspective, Claudio Radaelli (10 January 2008)

Desperately Seeking Regulatory Impact Assessments: Diary of a Reflective Researcher, Claudio Radaelli (22 November 2007)

Towards Better Research on Better Regulation, Claudio Radaelli (25-26 January 2007)

Whither Better Regulation for the Lisbon Agenda? Claudio Radaelli (2007)

Presentations and Dissemination

Accountability and governance in better regulation: Reflections on Denmark, Claudio Radaelli, 15 May 2009, Copenhagen

Reflexive questions about regulatory impact assessment, Claudio Radaelli, 24 April 2009, Dublin

The Use of Impact Assessment by Elected Assemblies, Claudio Radaelli, 6-7 March 2009, Belgrade

Regulatory metrics: from measurement to management, Fabrizio De Francesco and Claudio Radaelli, 17-18 November 2008, Berlin

What do governments get out of regulatory reform, Sciences-Po, Paris, 3 November 2008

Reflections on regulatory reform, Athens 26-27 September 2008.

Proceduralization Through Impact Assessment in the European Union (Claudio Radaelli and Anne Meuwese)
ECPR Conference, Utrecht, 5-7 June 2008

Climbing the mountain: Cross-National Paths to Regulatory Reform (Claudio Radaelli)
30 May 2008

Regulating Rule-Making: The Design and Use of Regulatory Impact Assessment (Claudio Radaelli)
Lagape-IEPI seminar on Liberalization and reregulation dynamics, University of Lausanne, 22-23 May 2008

Analysing Regulatory Impact Assessments in the UK (Claudio Radaelli, Oliver James, Anne Meuwese)
ENBR Workshop on Regulatory Quality, University of Exeter, 27-28 March 2008

The Implementation of Regulatory Impact Assessment in Europe (Claudio Radaelli, Fabrizio De Francesco, Vera Troeger)
European Network for Better Regulation, Workshop on Regulatory Quality,
University of Exeter, 26-27 March 2008

Getting results: the better regulation executive and the impact of the better regulation agenda (Claudio Radaelli)
Regulatory Reform Committee Inquiry, Memo, 20 March 2008

Reflections on the Political Economy of the 'War on Red Tape' (Claudio Radaelli)
Submitted to Legislação (Cadernos de Ciência de Legislação), 11 July 2007

Does Regulatory Impact Assessment Make Institutions Think? (Claudio Radaelli)
Connex workshop on policy instruments, Paris, 21-22 June 2007

The Politics of Policy Appraisal/Evaluation (Andrew Jordan, Claudio Radaelli and John Turnpenny)
Cambridge international workshop on “Politics of policy appraisal”, June 2007 (co-organised by UEA and Centre for Regulatory Governance, Exeter)

The Architecture of Regulatory Impact Assessment (Claudio Radaelli)
EVIA final conference, Brussels, 16 January 2008

Evidence-based policy and political control: what does regulatory impact assessment tell us? (Claudio Radaelli)
ECPR joint sessions of workshops, University of Rennes, April 2008

Events

IRRC 2008 (17-18 Nov 2008)
Bertelsmann Stiftung is hosting a second conference in Berlin on the topic of International Regulatory Reform.

Delivering Better Regulation for Europe's Citizens and Businesses? Taking stock of the EU's Better Regulation strategy (10-11 Sept 2008)
Bertelsmann Stiftung and the European Institute of Public Administration have organised this ‘by-invitation only’ colloquium which will take place in Brussels.

XV NOPSA 2008 (6-9 Aug 2008)
The XV NOPSA conference is being held by the Nordic Political Science Association at the University of Tromsø.

3rd Training Course on Regulatory Impact Assessment (10-12 Sep 2007)
The Directors and Experts on Better Regulation (DBR) are an informal group of senior national and Commission officials who meet a few times a year to coordinate and to further the iniatives on better regulation that can be taken by Member States as proposed by the Mandelkern report and the 2002 Action Plan on Better Regulation. These events take place at the University of Exeter.

1st Advanced Colloquium on Better Regulation (25-26 January 2007)
With the support of DG Enterprise, European Commission, this colloquium was held at Exeter University by researchers from the Centre for European Governance.