Risk and Regulatory Policy

Governments have always relied on regulation to protect citizens from social, environmental or economic risks. In fact it may be because the amelioration of societal risk is such a pervasive activity of government that an assessment of whether governments have a systematic means of addressing risks tends to be overlooked.

Yet it is precisely because regulation is so often relied upon to address risks that improvements to the risk governance frameworks has such potential to improve social welfare, by ensuring that regulatory approaches are efficient, effective and account for risk/risk tradeoffs across policy objectives.

Risk-based approaches to the design of regulation and compliance strategies can improve the welfare of citizens by providing better protection from hazards, more efficient government services and reduced costs for business. Across the OECD there is great potential to improve the operation of risk policy as few governments have taken steps to develop a coherent policy on the management of risks through regulation.

This page provides links to the research undertaken by the OECD on risk and regulatory policy, including the development and application of tools and policies for improving the governance of risk.