Independent Regulatory Agencies Research Articles

Does formal independence of regulators change? Evidence from Portuguese agencies

The rise of the regulatory state has led to the global diffusion of independent regulatory agencies (IRAs). IRAs are the result of the tension between the functional demands of regulatory capitalism and the need of politicians to control policies. Their life cycles have not been linear. Their legal statuses have changed over time, affecting their degrees of independence. This article revisits Gilardi's formal independence index, makes an in‐depth diachronic and cross‐sectorial analysis of 11 regulatory bodies in Portugal, and searches for explanations for the observed variations. It concludes that the formal independence of IRAs tends to increase due to external pressure and the need of governments to project credible commitment, but principals only grant as much independence as they see fit to satisfy those (external) demands (for change).

Analysis of Kangmei Pharmaceutical’s Financial Restatement Behavior from the Perspective of Corporate Governance

The object is Kangmei Pharmaceutical, a listed company in the pharmaceutical sector. The research is based on corporate governance, the company’s financial restatement behavior is analyzed based on the four aspects of Kangmei Pharmaceutical’s equity structure, institutional investors, independent audit institutions, media and regulatory agencies. In order to avoid Kangmei Pharmaceutical’s adjustments, several countermeasures and suggestions are put forward, and improve the corporate governance theory of the capital market.

An Overview of Approaches to Nuclear Security in Ghana

Ghana has significantly improved its nuclear security infrastructure over the years. However, as threats increase by the day and new applications of nuclear and radiological technology are designed and implemented, Ghana must develop a rigid and comprehensive approach to mitigating the negative impacts on its nuclear security while improving prevention, detection, and deterrence of nuclear and radiological terrorism within its geographical space. This paper overviews the approaches adopted by Ghana to build a strong nuclear security regime within the past decade. These include improving legal frameworks for nuclear security by establishing an independent Nuclear Regulatory Authority; assessing nuclear security culture in facilities; strengthening nuclear security capabilities at facilities that hold radioactive materials by improving physical protection systems for deterrence and detection; and building strong and effective collaboration and cooperation with various stakeholders, both locally and internationally, to distribute responsibility and provide technical and logistic support to build a stronger nuclear security regime. Ghana also identified developments in human capacity in areas of nuclear security as a relevant approach to improving its nuclear security and has thus collaborated with the IAEA and the University of Ghana to establish a graduate school for training Ghanaians and Africans in nuclear-related disciplines.

Success, Gaps and Challenges of Power Sector Reform in Ethiopia

Ethiopia faces chronic power problems including insufficient generation capacity, low connectivity and poor reliability of transmission and distribution all of which constrain development. The Ethiopian power sector reform is necessitated by poor technical and financial performance of the power sector. The reform was initiated during 1997 just like any other Africa country due to deregulation of the power sector market in the world which aimed to increase the technical and financial performance of the sector. The government initiative to reform the power sector was backed by world bank by transforming Ethiopia Electric Light and Power Authority (EELPA) into Ethiopia Electric Corporation (EEPCO) in order to give the utility to work in business mind rather than as simple service sector. The main reason for powers sector reform is inability of state own vertically integrated utility to mobilize sufficient capital for the electricity sector development and expansion and waiting of federal government yearly allocated budget to perform its planned tasks. It is found that as most sub Saharan African countries including Ethiopia is in its initial steps of power sector reform even though there are some work done regarding corporatization, electricity amendment, management contract and tariff setting for independent power producers. The reform resulted in significant progress in connectivity and creating independent regulatory agency but failed to bring unbundling, encompassing independent power producers and improving transmission and distribution reliability. This article is based on country study by the author reviewing the status of power sector reform with special emphases on the success, gaps and challenges of the sector. The result of this study shows that power sector reform in Ethiopia has mixed result that gaps and challenges override the success due to weak institutional structure, weak project management and low skill capacity of human resources to implement the reform as intended, government inability to finance the reform process and the country still position itself at level-2 out of level-5 of maturity level of power sector reform.

Diffusion and adaptation of the regulatory agency model in Brazil

Abstract This article examines the diffusion of independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) in Brazil, demonstrating how important domestic factors interplayed with traditional mechanisms of diffusion lead to an expressive process of agencification. Although top-down, bottom-up and horizontal mechanisms played an important role in the Brazilian agencification process, they fail to explain the creation of IRAs in unexpected sectors or the frequent modifications that occurred at subnational levels in a short period of time. To understand how local political actors adapted the regulatory agency model to the Brazilian institutional legacies, field research was conducted, based on bibliographical, documental, and interviews with key political actors. The specificities of Brazilian federalism and the strategic role of the film industry, bureaucrats and politicians in (re)interpreting the agency model helped to boost the diffusion of IRAs in Brazil.

Digital Technologies of the European Union in Personal Data Protection

The purpose of the article is to consider issues related to the legal protection of personal data in the European Union (EU). Based on a systematic approach and the method of comparative law, it is determined that the legal mechanisms of the EU most extensively regulate their scope, create a rigid framework for European and foreign companies and world corporations, and introduce independent regulatory authorities. This system of personal data protection is the most progressive at the moment. It is revealed that in the 20th-century mankind has experienced a rapid breakthrough of its development when the vector of technology progress was a reoriented towards information infrastructure, huge in its scale and universal coverage. Digital technologies led to the third industrial revolution, and they have entered into everyday life, both professional and domestic. Finally, the authors came to the conclusion that personal data protection rules are increasingly expanding. The world community has already realized the need to protect personal information, prevent its uncontrolled use, and the need to take sufficient measures to ensure the protection of information about the private life of everyone. Issues of cross-border transfer of personal data have become particularly important, and the trend towards the implementation of regulations on the personal data protection of an extraterritorial nature can be clearly seen.

Independent Regulatory Agency: Delegation of Powers

The existence of independent regulatory agencies - independent bodies which operate at arm´s length from the government and which are not directly accountable to the voters or their elected representatives - is still the object of intense debate. Independent regulatory agencies emerge in democratic policies across the world. It is difficult to find de lege ferenda rationale for their existence in a democracy where public policy is supposed to be made by electorally accountable people and where public institutions are not usually endowed with a high degree of independence. Thanks to economic theories and principles this article reveals a justification of their existence and gives arguments for their creation. The instrumental rationality problem, the problem of time inconsistency and the credible commitment problem constitute a heavy burden for government in some areas. A delegation of regulatory powers in these areas from the government to an independent body represents a solution to all these problems. The knowledge gained from economic theories can be beneficial for comprehension of the functioning of independent authorities and for setting their institutional legal framework.

Central banks under stress: Reputation, accountability and regulatory coherence

AbstractThis symposium homes in on an area of public administration that has been through a period of significant change in the last ten years. Since the global financial crisis, central banks have expanded their operations in financial markets, buying up vast quantities of assets as part of expansive monetary policy strategies. They have also played a leading role in the reform of financial regulation and have been entrusted with enhanced authority to supervise financial institutions. This activity has taken place amid heightened political contestation, with central banks increasingly viewed as the quintessence of a technocratic mode of governance that eschews traditional democratic control. The purpose of this symposium is to consider how central banks’ reputation, accountability and regulatory roles have changed since the financial crisis, and what those changes tell us about the balance of power between independent regulatory agencies and elected policy‐makers.

Effect of Electricity Act on tariff gap within the subsidizing sector: The case of India

The current study examines the effect of a set of Electricity Act, adopted by India in 2003, on the price gap between two specific consumer groups-industrial and commercial. Paying a higher tariff than the other consumer groups, these two groups have been referred to as the ‘subsidizing’ groups of consumers in the Indian context. While the effect of reforms between the ‘subsidizing; ’ and subsidized’ groups has received attention, research on the effect of reforms on the tariff gap within the ‘subsidizing’ sector has been under-addressed. Using data on all major states of the country spanning from 2004-2014, the study uses a graphical exposition, excerpts of policy document and panel econometric modelling technique. The study focuses on six aspects of the policy and emphasizes on adoption and implementation extent and finds that mere policy adoption has no strong effect on tariff gap. Instead, effective implementation may be beneficial in narrowing the tariff gap within the subsidizing sectors as well. Specifically, unbundling of the electricity sector into three different segments and establishment of an independent regulatory authority in the state may lead to narrowing tariff gap if implemented effectively.

Siefken, Sven (2018). Parlamentarische Kontrolle im Wandel. Theorie und Praxis des Deutschen Bundestages. Baden-Baden: Nomos. 461 Seiten. ISBN: 978-3-8487-4966-9

This book addresses the practices of the German Bundestag in controlling the federal administration. Siefken elaborates on different notions of parliamentary control and provides a detailed mapping of the parliament’s use of formal control instruments from 1949 - 2017. Most interestingly for scholars of public administration, Siefken conducted eight case studies of parliamentary control of federal agencies – both “traditional” and “modern” agencies established according to the ideas of the New Public Management or the independent regulatory agency model. Those case studies are instrumental for answering the book’s overarching research question about the exercise of parliamentary control under the conditions of major changes in the organizational setup of the state. With the exception of regulatory agencies, Siefken finds no major differences in control practices according to those categories, but fleshes out middle-range explanations of parliamentary control behaviour. This is an empirically rich book providing unprecedented insights into the actual practice of parliamentary control.

A Quality‐of‐Things model for assessing the Internet‐of‐Things' nonfunctional properties

AbstractThe Internet of Things (IoT) is in a “desperate” need for a practical model that would help in differentiating things according to their nonfunctional properties. Unfortunately, despite IoT growth, such properties either lack or ill‐defined resulting into ad hoc ways of selecting similar functional things. This paper discusses how things' nonfunctional properties are combined into a Quality‐of‐Things (QoT) model. This model includes properties that define the performance of things' duties related to sensing, actuating, and communicating. Since the values of QoT properties might not always be available or confirmed, providers of things can tentatively define these values and submit them to an Independent Regulatory Authority (IRA) whose role is to ensure fair competition among all providers. The IRA assesses the values of nonfunctional properties of things prior to recommending those that could satisfy users' needs. To evaluate the technical doability of the QoT model, a set of comprehensive experiments are conducted using real data sets. The results depict an acceptable level of the QoT estimation accuracy.

Europäisierung der Regulierungsbehörden im Energiesektor im Vergleich

With Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, the question of the lasting legacy of a specific English administrative culture in the remaining member states arises. Although often treated as an import from the United States, this article argues that the British model of independent regulatory authorities is one of the most formative contributions to a common European administrative culture, forcing other EU member states to rethink fundamental ideas of democratic legitimacy. Taking national regulatory authorities in the energy sector as an example, this contribution shows how British approaches towards organisation and independence of these authorities played a decisive role in the drafting of the relevant EU directives. Consequently, only few changes in UK national legislation where necessary to comply, while in Germany major reforms were due, being the only member state in which no regulatory authority existed in the energy sector prior to the implementation of the EU directives. The analysis of these European requirements, the British influence on them, and the different ways of their implementation in the United Kingdom and Germany are the subject of this article.

Do power sector reforms affect electricity prices in selected Asian countries?

This paper examines the impact of power sector reforms on electricity prices using panel data for selected Asian countries over the period 1970–2017. We estimate two separate models for domestic and industrial prices. Our results from pooled OLS and the random effect model show that the impact of independent power producers, privatisation, restructuring, and deregulation on electricity prices is negative and significant, making both domestic and industrial consumers better off. However, the welfare effects of unbundling generation from transmission and distribution appear to be beneficial for residential end-users only. Our results also indicate that other reform indicators including third-party access and the existence of independent regulatory agencies may not be the right choice for a reduction in electricity prices, given the absence of a requisite conducive environment for regulations in our sample countries. Thus, the inconsistent behaviour of different regulatory reforms towards different countries and regions of the world needs to be considered in the policy formulation of the power sector. We also note that the results can be magnified in terms of significance with the exclusion of some outlier observations in the data.

Gravity of the non-authorized use of substances not intended for clinical use in invasive aesthetic procedures: the portuguese case.

There is a worldwide increase in the number of invasive aesthetic procedures, and there is a general apprehension in medical societies towards the assurance of patient safety, that is dependent on the quality and certification of providers, of the materials and substances used, and where they take place.It is the main objective of this study to determine the perception of the gravity of non-authorized substances for clinical use in invasive aesthetic procedures among Portuguese plastic surgeons and its variation by the clinical sector of practice. We proceeded to an inquiry by using a questionnaire, measured in a Linkert scale, and the collected data were statistically treated with a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. We obtained a 41,4% answer rate and a global perception that this is a serious problem - a median of 8,00 and mean of 7,45 points on a 1 to 10 scale. 70% of the plastic surgeons that answered the questionnaire work both in the private and public sector, 19% exclusively in the public sector and 11% only in private practice. The perception of the problem was most serious among those that work exclusively in the private sector (statistically significant difference). The causes of the observed difference may reside in various reasons: the higher number of patients submitted to invasive aesthetic procedures exclusively in private practice; the higher perception of regulatory deficits in the private sector; scarce specific health politics for procedures outside the traditional boundaries of medicine; the difficulty for independent regulatory agencies to adopt effective measures.

Sector reforms and institutional corruption: Evidence from electricity industry in Sub-Saharan Africa

In order to reduce the influence of corruption on electricity sector performance, most Sub-Saharan African countries have implemented electricity sector reforms. However, after nearly two and half decades of reforms, there is no evidence whether the reforms have mitigated corruption. Neither is there evidence of performance improvement of the reforms in terms of technical, economic or welfare impact. This paper aims to fill this gap. We use a dynamic panel estimator with a novel panel data of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2002 to 2013. We analyse the impact of corruption and two key aspects of electricity reforms – creations of independent regulatory agencies and private sector participation – on three key performance indicators: technical efficiency, access to electricity and income. We find that corruption can significantly reduce technical efficiency of the sector and constrain the efforts to increase access to electricity and national income. The adverse effects are reduced where independent regulatory agencies are established and privatisation is implemented. These findings suggest that well-designed reforms not only boost the performance of the sector directly, but also indirectly reduce the negative effects of macro level institutional deficiencies such as corruption on micro and macro performance indicators.

As agências reguladoras brasileiras e seus problemas jurídicos

A compreensão do desenho institucional que envolve as Agências Reguladoras Independentes no cenário regulatório americano e brasileiro é de extrema relevância para que possam ser feitas as comparações entre os modelos de ambos os países e sejam traçados paralelos que auxiliem na solução dos problemas de natureza jurídica enfrentados no cotidiano da regulação no Brasil desde a implementação das entidades. No estudo comparado das Agências Reguladoras e dos respectivos transplantes institucionais realizados, a identificação das peculiaridades políticas e jurídicas locais em confronto com o modelo importado pode auxiliar na mudança incremental do desenho normativo da regulação no Brasil, fortalecendo as instituições e promovendo, por consequência, o desenvolvimento econômico, político e social do país ao garantir um ambiente regulatório estável e dotado de segurança jurídica.

When Benefit-Cost Analysis Becomes Optional: Regulatory Analysis at the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the CPSIA Era

AbstractIn this study, I examine how the regulatory analysis practices of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an independent regulatory agency, changed when the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 relaxed its statutory obligations to conduct benefit-cost analysis (BCA). When given discretion, the agency dropped the practice despite significant institutional experience in conducting regulatory BCA and a history of using BCA as a key input to regulatory decisions. While the decision reflects an agency belief that omitting BCA would speed rulemaking under the CPSIA, the results have been mixed. Moreover, choosing to forego BCA-based decision-making fundamentally changed the agency’s regulatory portfolio. In contrast to the typical rule CPSC historically supported with BCA findings, many of the CPSIA rules impose significant economic burdens yet appear to yield negligible benefits. The CPSC would have been unlikely to have pursued the CPSIA rulemakings on its own because it could not have made the necessary BCA findings.

The One and the Many: Bipartisan Leadership as Second-Best Bureaucracy

How should the Supreme Court resolve, in its forthcoming Seila Law decision on the permissibility of single-headed independent agencies, the split between en banc decisions in the Fifth Circuit and D.C. Circuit? Although the Court will likely (and I argue, correctly) extend its 2010 Free Enterprise Fund ruling to find the single director of the CFPB an unconstitutional intrusion into the President’s ability to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” it is of critical importance to the administrative state whether the Justices rule broadly to obviate Humphrey’s Executor or approach the independent agency question more incrementally. I urge the incremental approach in this Article. By developing a formal model of how structural features alone or combination affect presidential power, I demonstrate how the multi-member bipartisan leadership of the traditional independent regulatory agency could be less likely to “go rogue” against the elected executive, in comparison to a solitary agency head protected from removal. Plural commissions and boards can thus be distinguished constitutionally and preserved (along with Humphrey’s Executor) even if the CFPB Director falls in Seila Law. I also explore the implications of the independent regulatory agency’s other structural problem within formalist separation-of-powers jurisprudence, in that it takes on quasi-legislative regulatory functions originally vested with the legislature, in addition to its insulation from presidential control. If it can be shown that these two features help mitigate one another through the creation of a semi-autonomous structure resembling a legislature or “reverse parliament,” they become, if hardly unproblematic, at least less problematic. Taken singly, resolution of the constitutional tensions and anomalies created by either legislative delegation or commission independence would likely be sub-optimal from both a constitutional and administrative viewpoint, even if a committed originalist might prefer a return to a federal government with neither feature as the best of all possible worlds. I conclude the bureaucratic structure of the independent, plural, and bipartisan regulatory commissions – especially if reformed by aligning the statutory terms of chairs with the presidential cycle – may be a constitutional second-best to an unrecoverable Madisonian allocation of authority.

¿TÉCNICOS O POLÍTICOS?: RADIOGRAFÍA DEL SISTEMA DE NOMBRAMIENTO DE DIRECTIVOS EN AGENCIAS REGULATORIAS INDEPENDIENTES

This paper analyzes the Chilean experience regarding process of appointing heads of independent regulatory agencies (IRA) using a database that gathers information of several appointments in different regulatory agencies. The data shows that standards of formal independence are rather low. The processes of selection led by the Supreme Court, the Antitrust Court or Central Bank show better results, so seems reasonable to continue with the incorporation of multi-member panels and transparency.

Review on the Mandatory Administrative Rules of the Independent Regulatory Agencies in the United States

미국에서 입법평가는 환경 · 보건 · 재난관리 등 특수 영역, 개별법에 대한 규제논의를 중심으로 발전하여 왔다. 그러나 2017년 트럼프 대통령의 행정명령, 규제개혁법(“Regulatory Accountability Act”), 백악관 규제정보관리실개혁법(“The OIRA Insight, Reform, and Accountability Act”) 등에서 보다 구체적으로 입법평가 의무화를 규정하면서 삼권(입법 · 사법 · 행정)으로부터 독립되었으며, 경제규제에 관하여도 독립적 지위를 가진 연방 독립규제위원회에 대한 입법평가 의무화 논의도 적극적으로 이루어지고 있다.BR 구체적으로 독립규제위원회에 대한 입법평가 의무화 논의는 행정입법 통제 또는 규제개혁의 한 측면으로 이루어지고 있으므로 본질적으로 입법평가가 필요한지, 필요하다면 입법평가의 방법, 기준, 평가의 효력을 어떻게 규율할지에 관한 논의가 이루어지고 있다. 이에 따라 본 연구에서는 독립규제의원회의 입법평가 도입과 관련된 미국에서의 논의를 검토하고 우리나라에서 이러한 논의에 대한 검토가 이루어질 필요가 있음을 제안하고자 한다.BR 우리나라에서 입법평가제도는 개별 법률 또는 조례에 대한 평가에 초점을 맞춘 반면, 행정입법에 관한 논의는 상대적으로 적극적으로 이루어지지 않았다. 따라서 그동안 법률 또는 조례를 대상으로 실시하였던 입법평가 경험을 바탕으로 행정입법에 대한 입법평가 논의도 적극적으로 수행할 수 있을 것으로 생각된다. 다만, 입법평가의 주체, 결과 판단기관, 평가기준, 정부조직 내에서 입법평가를 긍정적으로 활용할 수 있는 방안 등에 관한 보다 구체적인 연구와 합의가 함께 이루어져야 할 것이다.