Ex Ante Impact Evaluation

Focusing on pro-poor growth and income poverty, Promoting Pro-Poor Growth: Policy Guidance for Donors identifies binding constraints and offers policies and strategies to address them.

There are many reasons why strategic intelligence is required to support policy decisions. These primarily stem from the nature of today's kno- edge society with two contrasting trends. On the one hand, there is a trend of increasing human intelligence in the economic, social and political s- tems. On the other hand, there is a trend towards dissolving certainties about the problems and solutions of today's society. Clearly, more inf- mation does not necessary imply more certainties on how to act. What is more, the same facts are often interpreted in markedly different ways: the same policy relevant information can – and often does – results in confli- ing framing of a problem by different stakeholders. This is mainly due to competing assumptions, rather then because of inconsistent facts. The- fore, it is not surprising that policy-makers are calling for strategic intel- gence to support their understanding of today's challenges, including the relevant aspects of science and technology, their impact and their possible future developments. Over the last 15 years, Europe has rapidly adopted the practice of dev- oping and using Impact Assessment (IA) tools to support decision-making. Formal procedures and guidance for IA are well established within the European Commission and in most EU Member States. The adoption of IA procedures alone, however, does not guarantee that every policy domain is actually using the full potential of these assessment tools in the preparation of policies and legislation.

Public programs are designed to reach certain goals and beneficiaries. Methods to understand whether such programs actually work, as well as the level and nature of impacts on intended beneficiaries, are main themes of this book.

"Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) is an approach used increasingly by governments, civil society organizations, the World Bank, and other development partners to examine the distributional impacts of policy reforms on the well-being of different stakeholders groups, particularly the poor and vulnerable. PSIA has an important role in the elaboration and implementation of poverty reduction strategies in developing countries because it promotes evidence-based policy choices and fosters debate on policy reform options. Poverty and Social Impact Analysis of Reforms presents a collection of case studies that illustrate the spectrum of sectors and policy reforms to which PSIA can be applied; it also elaborates on the broad range of analytical tools and techniques that can be used for PSIA. The case studies provide examples of the impact that PSIA can have on the design of policy reforms and draw operational lessons for PSIA implementation. The case studies deal largely with policy reforms in a single sector, such as agriculture (crop marketing boards in Malawi and Tanzania and cotton privatization in Tajikistan); energy (mining sector in Romania and oil subsidies in Ghana); utilities (power sector reform in Ghana, Rwanda, and transition economies, and water sector reform in Albania); social sectors (education reform in Mozambique and social welfare reform in Sri Lanka); taxation reform (Nicaragua); as well as macroeconomic modeling (Burkina Faso)."

Around the globe, ex ante evaluation of legislation has become an established rationalisation of legislative processes. Legislators, politicians, and the public at large increasingly demand new laws to have a particular effect and no unwanted side effects. Various instruments are being applied that all have in common that they must predict the effect of new legislation. Until now, most publications on regulatory impact assessment praise such instruments as being extremely useful. Scepticism, however, is in order as well. Is it not as difficult to predict the future effect of a new set of rules in our complex society as it is to predict where our society as a whole is going? The search for an answer to this sceptical question is at the heart of the book. The newly established Research Group for Methodology of Law and Legal Research at Tilburg University (the Netherlands) brought together some of Europe s top specialists in the field of ex ante evaluation of legislation, with backgrounds in law, social science, political science, and law and economics. The result of their collaborative effort is a comprehensive and critical book on the pros and cons and on the opportunities, limitations, and challenges of ex ante assessment of legislation.

研究係科學的組織化展現，技術開發係鑲嵌於企業商品與競爭之中。本書藉由創新管理理論分別介紹NPV、ROI、MAU、DEA、Bucket Method、MADM、線性規劃組合最佳化等方法，並說明組織如何於研發計畫篩選與評估中，理解方法預設並克服阻礙創新的組織障礙。

The growing attention for evidence-based lawmaking and reduction of administrative burdens caused methods of ex ante evaluation to be introduced in legislative processes around the globe. This book discusses the opportunities, limitations and challenges of ex ante assessment of legislation.