Regulatory Impact Assessment Research Articles

Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk

Abstract This paper explores the role of microeconomic analysis in policy formulation by assessing how the regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) that federal regulatory agencies prepare for important proposed rules may affect outcomes when regulations are challenged in court. Conventional wisdom among economists and senior regulatory officials in federal agencies suggests that high-quality economic analysis can help a regulation survive such challenges, particularly when the agency explains how the analysis affected decisions. However, highlighting the economic analysis may also increase the risk a regulation could be overturned by inviting court scrutiny of the RIA. Using a dataset of economically significant, prescriptive regulations proposed between 2008 and 2013, we put these conjectures to the test, studying the relationships between the quality of the RIA accompanying each rule, the agency’s explanation of how the analysis influenced its rulemaking decisions, and whether the rule was overturned when challenged in court. The regression results suggest that higher-quality RIAs are associated with a lower likelihood that the associated rules are later invalidated by courts, provided that the agency explained how it used the RIA in its decisions. Similarly, when the agency described how the RIA was used, a poor-quality analysis appears to increase the likelihood that the regulation is overturned, perhaps because it invites a greater level of court scrutiny. In contrast, when the agency does not describe how the RIA was utilized, there is no correlation between the quality of analysis and the likelihood that the regulation will be invalidated.

Regulatory Reform: Results and Challenges

Abstract Over the last century, the United States has witnessed three approaches to achieving better regulatory outcomes: the removal of “economic” regulations in certain sectors; regulatory impact analysis (RIA) of new “social” regulations; and retrospective analysis of existing regulations. This article reviews the rationale for each approach, the results to date, and the remaining challenges. It finds that both institutional and technical factors influence the success of reform efforts.

A Systematic Scoping Review of the Collaborative Governance of Environmental and Cultural Flows

This study systematically reviews English-language papers about the collaborative governance of environmental and cultural flows. With mixed-methods analyses, we illustrate that the determination of environmental flow needs is common, with authors in 42 countries across 112 watersheds describing their management. In contrast, cultural flows (characterized by attention to both ecological and non-ecological needs, decision-making authority of Indigenous Nations, and Indigenous rights) were reported only in papers by authors in commonwealth, colonial countries: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Evaluated against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Water Governance Principles, we found that the literature reported efforts that considered appropriate local and regional scales, information and data, regulatory frameworks, and capacity building of communities and authorities engaged in environmental and cultural flow initiatives. However, there was limited consideration of the roles of communities in policymaking, which was more common in jurisdictions with decentralized governance. In jurisdictions with democratic community-based initiatives, environmental and cultural flows have not been approached in merely technical processes to communicate hydro-social-ecological information to decision-makers. Instead, the initiatives have created the context for evaluating new developments at the watershed level in light of communities’ social and ecological water goals, collaborating during unique drought and flooding conditions, working to rebalance power in decision-making through water justice, creating ecological and Indigenous reserved water rights, granting legal personhood for rivers, and protecting water for the environment and dependent people in water markets. Going forward, we identify a need for greater attention to community roles in environmental and cultural flows protection in water governance including policy creation and evaluation, regulatory initiatives, strategic planning, and impact assessments.

Consumer Perception of Food Safety and Valuation of Statistical Life: A Contingent Valuation Study

The value of statistical life (VSL) reflects the trade-off between money and the risk of death. It is a key indicator for conducting regulatory impact assessments. The main purpose of this study was to estimate the VSL in the field of food safety. At the same time, it investigates respondents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing the risk of death from foodborne illnesses and explores the impact of factors such as the average household monthly income, health status, and education level on WTP. We conducted a survey using an open-ended contingent valuation method among 1307 respondents aged 18 and above to determine their WTP. Based on the WTP survey results, we calculated the VSL in the food safety sector. We used binary logit and Tobit models to analyze the influencing factors. The results of the study show that the median WTP for reducing the risk of foodborne illness is CNY 100 (USD 16), and the estimated VSL is approximately CNY 9.09 million (USD 141 million). Indicators such as the average household monthly income, health status, and education level are important factors affecting WTP. This study will help practitioners, researchers, and policymakers understand the current population’s attitudes towards food safety regulations and determine the priorities for regulatory implementation. Future research can explore the effects of different elicitation methods, cultural differences, and regional variations on WTP and VSL.

Phenomenological Study of the Simirah Information System in Addressing Cooking Oil Scarcity (2021-2023)

Abstract This research explores the government policy regarding the surge in cooking oil prices in 2022, a topic of ongoing debate among stakeholders. The findings reveal that the direct cash assistance (BLT) program’s regulatory impact assessment underscores lower-class economic principles’ volatility and the challenges of simplifying government policies, often perceived as unfeasible. On the other hand, the monitoring of bulk cooking oil (MGCR) producers benefits entrepreneurs and does not directly alleviate poverty. However, the practical implementation of the Simirah application system, a significant tool in this context, presents substantial and urgent hurdles for small-scale vendors. Their limited understanding of the system, coupled with their lack of technological knowledge and insufficient socialisation about the monitoring procedures related to cooking oil distribution, severely impede their effective use of the system. Large traders and distributors of cooking oil, with their relatively good technological knowledge, often step in as support and representatives for these small-scale vendors.

Health benefits of phasing out coal-fired power plants in Ontario, Alberta, and Canada

Coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in Ontario were decommissioned in a phased approach from 2003 to 2014. After Ontario's commitment to eliminate coal-based electricity generation, Alberta and Canada have planned on phasing out coal in the electricity sector. The coal regulation in Canada targets coal-free electricity generation by 2030, accelerating the criteria air pollutant emission reductions in the CFPPs nationwide. The Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement (RIAS) under the coal regulation estimated substantial health benefits based on scenario analysis. Here we use adjoint sensitivity analysis as an alternative approach to estimate the health impacts of CFPPs and non-coal electric generating units (EGUs). The adjoint of the U.S. EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is used to attribute PM2.5-related health impacts for primary and precursor PM2.5 emissions emitted from the CFPPs and non-coal EGUs in Canada using various epidemiological studies. Our findings suggest that the reduction of CFPP emissions yields more total benefits rather than other fuel types in EGUs. A significant amount of total health burden is estimated to occur within the province that hosts the facility, and with a larger portion of this benefit coming in warmer seasons. Our retrospective analysis of Ontario coal phase-out estimates $1B CAD total annual health benefits in 2003, or projected 2014 benefits of $1.8 B CAD. The transboundary impact of emission reductions from coal-fired power plants in the U.S. entails significant health benefits to Ontario and Canada, more than twice that of Ontario's own coal phase-out. Nationwide, total health burden estimate for CFPPs and non-coal EGUs is $418M CAD in 2014. The choice of epidemiological model has a sizeable impact on estimated burdens or benefits.

El análisis psicológico del Derecho en la regulación jurídica. El sandbox español de inteligencia artificial”.

The close collaboration between Psychology and Law has contributed to the enrichment of the legislative technique. The application of psychological behavioural analysis to law breaks the current paradigm and offers a unique perspective for lawmaking through the study of people's behaviour in the face of laws. Legal experimentation, an innovative practice, emerges as a crucial tool for law-making and regulatory impact assessment in novel areas whose subject matter may be potentially burdensome to individual rights and freedoms. In the context of the Spanish artificial intelligence sandbox, the application of psychology to law is of particular importance, as it contributes to the emerging and much-needed legal regulation. This cooperation between doctrines promises not only to boost normative evolution, but also to ensure a more effective and protective regulation in a world increasingly influenced by technology.

It's time for artificial intelligence governance

Advances in Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence have transformed society with the potential to foster the prosperity of human beings and improving societal welfare. However, at the same time, there are concerns about their potential negative impact. In this regard, it is of utmost importance to establish a regulatory framework for the Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things that will ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, promoted, and protected.In this sense, the goal of this article is to propose the Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things Governance model. To achieve a better regulation concept, for the Regulatory Impact Assessment we used the Analytical Hierarchy Process method.

Regulatory Impact Assessment: Optimization of The Complete Systematic Land Registration Through The Ministerial Regulation of ATR/BPN Number 6 of 2018

Regulatory Impact Assessment: Optimization of The Complete Systematic Land Registration Through The Ministerial Regulation of ATR/BPN Number 6 of 2018

Regulators Should Value Nonhuman Animals

Abstract Some regulations do not only reduce human deaths, injuries, and illnesses; they also protect nonhuman animals. Regulatory Impact Analyses, required by prevailing executive orders, usually do not disclose or explore benefits or costs with respect to nonhuman animals, even when those benefits or costs are significant. This is an inexcusable gap. If a regulation prevents dogs, horses, or cats from being killed or hurt, the benefits should be specified and quantified. This proposition holds even if those benefits are in some sense incidental to the main goal of the regulation. At the same time, turning the relevant benefits into monetary equivalents raises serious challenges, akin to those raised by the valuation of statistical children.

Legal regulation of the cost of legislation

In lawmaking, there are situations when draft normative legal acts do not reach the entry into force stage. In some cases, the reason is non-compliance with formal requirements, poor elaboration of the act, and in some cases, incorrect calculations or inexpediency of expenses. A large number of changes are often made to already adopted regulations in order to correct previously incorrect decisions, as well as adjust the financial security of their implementation. These situations are aggravated by various circumstances, including, for example, difficult economic conditions and the international situation, calling for a compromise between costs and regulatory effectiveness. Such problems and circumstances show the importance of studying the cost of legal regulation, one of the aspects of which is the study of the normative consolidation of rules regarding the determination of the cost of law-making and the implementation of accepted norms. Based on this, the subject of this study is normative legal acts that establish the need to study and fix the costs of law-making and the costs associated with planning the implementation of norms, as well as the requirements for the content of the financial and economic justification as an accompanying document of the draft normative legal act. The author comes to the conclusion that despite the significant importance and the real need for regulatory legal consolidation, the assessment of the costs of lawmaking is not regulated anywhere. On the contrary, the requirements for estimating the planned costs of legal realization are regulated in a variety of subordinate regulatory legal acts and in most cases these provisions are duplicated. Regulatory impact assessment and actual impact assessment are currently carried out in relation to business entities and other economic activities and only in relation to costs arising in connection with the fulfillment of regulatory requirements.

The Economic Constitution of the United States

The United States has an Economic Constitution, governing federal regulation, and explaining how to conduct regulatory impact analysis, with reference to quantification and monetization of the costs and benefits of proposed and final regulations. Known as OMB Circular A-4, the Economic Constitution of the United States was thoroughly revised in 2023, with new directions on behavioral economics and nudging; on discount rates and effects on future generations; on distributional effects and how to account for them; and on benefits and costs that are hard or impossible to quantify. The revised document leaves numerous open questions, involving (for example) the valuation of human life, the valuation of morbidity effects, and the value of the lives of children.

REVIEW OF REGIONAL TOURISM ARRANGEMENTS IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE LOCAL WISDOM OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN INDONESIA

Objective: This study aims to determine and analyze regional tourism arrangements in order to preserve the local wisdom of indigenous peoples in Indonesia. Theoretical Framework: This study discusses regional tourism juxtaposed with the preservation of local wisdom by basing on several theoretical and conceptual frameworks such as regulatory review, regional tourism, local wisdom, and indigenous peoples. Some of these reviews are used to focus research to use the same concept so that there is no expansion of meaning. Methodology: This study uses a type of normative legal research with a statutory approach method (statute approach). Data collection in this study was carried out by means of literature studies, and the data analysis techniques used were critical analysis techniques. Findings: Regulations on tourism in several regions, such as in Bali, Bitung and Bunaken, Toba, Labuan Bajo, Raja Ampat, Tengger, and Baduy in their implementation still do not fully pay attention to and involve the values of local wisdom of local indigenous peoples. Research, Practical & Social Implications: This study analyzes regulations on regional tourism which are then analyzed using the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) method to identify and assess a regulation or legislation by taking into account the impact analysis (both positively and negatively) and benefits or costs. Originality / value: The value of this research is very important to build national legal products and regional legal products for national tourism development that provide protection to the environment and preservation of national culture, especially cultural traditions and wisdom of customary law communities in tourism destination areas, in addition to encouraging economic growth in an equitable manner for local communities.

Is design thinking a support decision approach in different food safety contexts?

BackgroundNovel approaches have been discussed as useful for improving food safety. Design thinking (DT) is an approach to solving human problems and seems to provide better results than traditional methods of solving complex problems. In food safety, DT has been used in the food donation process and transformative change in food safety (FS) culture, although its precise applicability as a valuable approach remains an area of ongoing exploration. Scope and approachThis commentary highlighted DT use and its applicability evaluation in different food safety contexts. We compared two studies that used DT in food safety: 1) a regulatory impact assessment of insecurity in the food donation process from a food safety standpoint, and 2) the evolvement of FS-culture in food services. Key findings and conclusionsDT delivered positive results in developing a prototype, e.g., when conducting a regulatory impact assessment in the field of food safety. However, when it comes to complex phenomena, such as proactively improving the FS-culture in food service, DT does not seem to be as effective.

Streamlined benefit analysis of products based on the Sustainable Development Goals: Integrating the voice of society into life cycle sustainability assessment

AbstractConducting benefit analyses used to be a controversial endeavor. In the absence of a consistent normative framework, indicators had to be determined on a case‐by‐case basis, requiring time‐consuming stakeholder workshops. The 2030 Agenda provided the missing normative basis to enable the inclusion of benefit aspects in life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). However, given the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets, it has remained unclear which of these targets relate to products and services and should therefore be used as indicators in benefit analyses. Against this background, this paper presents a consistent and well‐defined indicator framework for product‐related benefit analyses, developed through a detailed alignment with the 2030 Agenda and comprising a set of 30 indicators. It also describes how benefit analysis can be integrated into the LCSA methodology to provide a sound, evidence‐based framework for research and policy making: First, it outlines a sustainability self‐assessment tool for corporate researchers and designers, embedded in a Stage‐Gate process as a “voice‐of‐society” perspective. Second, it discusses approaches to improve regulatory impact assessment for policy making, particularly in the area of chemicals management. An illustrative case study shows how the developed benefit indicators can address current shortcomings in socio‐economic analysis methodology, such as an unbalanced focus on the economic impacts and insufficient information on human and environmental impacts. Despite its limitations, such as the inherent focus on societal benefits and existing “blind spots” in the 2030 Agenda, the indicator set has the potential to enrich LCSA studies with previously neglected aspects.

Behavioural Analysis and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Abstract Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is an appraisal tool to bring evidence to bear on regulatory decisions. A key property of RIA is that is corrects errors in reasoning by pushing regulators towards deliberative thinking to override intuitive judgments. However, the steps for regulatory analysis suggested by international organisations and governmental handbooks do not handle two sources of bias and barriers that are well documented in the literature on behavioural insights. First, bias enters the process via knowledge production during the analytical process of assessment. Second, bias affects knowledge utilisation when regulators “read” or utilise the results of RIA. We explore these two pathways by focusing on drivers of behaviour rather than lists of biases. The conclusions reflect on the limitations of current practice and its possible improvement, making suggestions for an RIA architecture that is fully informed by behavioural analysis.

Regulatory lag, efficiency, and performance. Lessons from a case study

Our main contribution is to identify the risks implied by the existence of prolonged regulatory lags. We hypothesize that a likely first response is to reduce OPEX, increasing efficiency. If the lag persists for enough time, a vicious circle of inefficiency, disinvestment, and reduced performance can follow. We use a regulatory episode affecting natural gas distributors in Argentina as a natural experiment, controlling with other Latin American countries’ utilities not exposed to the same regulatory stimuli. We evaluate the relative efficiency of fourteen firms for five countries, in seven years, using Stochastic Frontiers Analysis (SFA). Thus, we perform a regulatory impact analysis (RIA) to assess the consequences on the performance of two idiosyncratic regulatory policy instruments applied in the distribution gas industry in Argentina in the 1998–2021 period (the 2002 Public Emergency Law and the 2016 Integral Tariff Review).

Integrating climate change into legislative drafting: An analysis of regulatory impact assessment obligations and practices in the EU and Finland

AbstractDiverse aspects of climate change must be considered when drafting legislation to successfully address mitigation and adaptation objectives. In this article, we examine the legal requirements to conduct regulatory climate impact assessment (climate RIA) and analyse to what extent these have been implemented in the European Union (EU) and Finland. Our particular interest is Article 6(4) of the European Climate Law, a provision obligating the European Commission to assess the consistency of draft measures or proposals with the Union's climate objectives. Our results demonstrate that climate RIA has not been applied methodically in the EU or Finland and that where it has been conducted, it has mainly addressed impacts of the legislative proposals on greenhouse gas emissions and neglected impacts on climate change adaptation and carbon sinks. These results indicate that the obligations have been inadequately implemented. While an explicit requirement to conduct climate RIA heightens acknowledgement of climate impacts in legislative drafting, guidance in fulfilling the requirement in practice is equally essential.

The Regulatory Impact Analysis of the Golf Driving Range in Thailand

The Regulatory Impact Analysis of the Golf Driving Range in Thailand

Theoretical and legal mechanism for evaluating the results of regulatory influence in the agricultural sector

The article examines specific issues of the effectiveness of legislative regulation of evaluating the results of regulatory influence as an important element of state regulatory policy in the field of agricultural activity in the context of the existence of a tendency to increase the number of legislative and by-laws as state regulatory instruments. The expediency of assessing the possible consequences of active law-making activities, in particular their impact on the economic efficiency of the agricultural sector, is determined. It is proposed to define the assessment of the regulatory impact in the agricultural sector as an impact aimed at improving the legal regulation of agrarian-economic relations, as well as administrative relations between regulatory bodies or other state authorities and subjects of agrarian management, and the purpose of such an assessment is defined. The expediency of including the studied term in the Law of Ukraine «On the principles of state regulatory policy in the field of economic activity» is substantiated. Based on the analysis of foreign experience in assessing the results of regulatory influence, it is proposed in the science of domestic administrative law to separate such an assessment into an independent procedure related to the process of development, justification and adoption of normative legal acts in the state policy system. It is proposed to shift the assessment emphasis to the deregulation of relations in the economic sphere with the mandatory consideration of the needs of small, medium and large subjects of the agrarian sector, as well as the determination of the related advantages for various social groups of the rural population. A number of proposals of a theoretical and methodological nature regarding the improvement of the regulatory impact assessment procedure have been provided.