Regulatory Policy In Perspective A Reader S Companion To The Oecd Regulatory Policy Outlook 2015

This volume collects expert papers on: the trends and challenges of regulatory policy today; regulatory impact assessment; stakeholder engagement; and ex-post evaluation. These papers provide background material for the 2015 edition of the OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook.

This volume collects expert papers on: the trends and challenges of regulatory policy today; regulatory impact assessment; stakeholder engagement; and ex-post evaluation. These papers provide background material for the 2015 edition of the OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook. They summarise the knowledge to date on these topics and underline progress made by countries in establishing the conditions for good regulation as well as the remaining challenges.

Regulations are essential to promoting economic growth, social welfare and environmental protection. But they can also be costly and ineffective. Based on a unique survey of OECD members, this Outlook is the first evidence-based analysis of the progress made by countries to improve regulation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role regulation plays in the economy and society, but has also exposed gaps in domestic and international rule-making that have cost lives and money. The 2021 Regulatory Policy Outlook, the third in the series, maps country efforts to improve regulatory quality in line with the 2012 OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance, and shares good regulatory practices that can help close the gaps.

Regulations play a fundamental role in achieving public policy objectives, including the protection of human health and the environment, the fight against monopolies, or the efficient provision of water and sanitation services. Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is an important tool for ensuring that regulations are of good quality.

The stock of laws has been growing steadily over time in countries as a result of governments responding to new and emerging challenges. Yet these and other new laws do not always fit well with existing regulatory frameworks, especially as economies and countries are becoming ever-increasingly more interconnected. The OECD Best Practice Principles for Reviewing the Stock of Regulation offers a practical and flexible framework for countries to follow when reviewing laws.

In recent years, the idea of "nudges" – small changes in individual choice architecture that do not involve incentives or coercion – has entered policy discourse and practice to address various problems ranging from energy usage to retirement savings. However, how nudges can be incorporated into regulatory practice, and whether the experimental methodologies used to design nudges are still appropriate when they are being used as a regulatory instrument is still an unexplored issue. As this book shows, the translation of ideas into the world of regulation is not so simple and straightforward. By analysing the different experimental alternatives that regulators can use when designing nudges and through a close analysis of a real-world example – the case of the European Union tobacco warnings – this book proposes an alternative design process more in tune with the reality of regulation. The book explores the implications of iterative experimental methodologies and processes for regulators, concluding with a call for an alternative nudging’s design process tailored to the regulatory space. This book is crucial for researchers and policy-makers interested in the incorporation of nudging into regulation and anyone interested in the implications of behavioural economics – and evidence more generally – for regulatory design.

This report is part of the series OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy produced under the auspices of the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee. As with other reports in the series, it extends and elaborates on principles highlighted in the 2012 Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance.