Regulatory Impact Analysis

Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) is a systemic approach to critically assessing the positive and negative effects of proposed and existing regulations and non-regulatory alternatives. As employed in OECD countries it encompasses a range of methods. At its core it is an important element of an evidence-based approach to policy making.

OECD analysis shows that the conduct of RIA within an appropriate systematic framework can underpin the capacity of governments to ensure that regulations are efficient and effective in a changing and complex world. Some form of RIA has now been adopted by nearly all OECD members, but they have all nevertheless found the successful implementation of RIA administratively and technically challenging.

This page provides links to the considerable research undertaken by the OECD on methodological issues and country experiences with the implementation of RIA and includes guidance material to improve the performance of RIA, its early integration with policy making and the promotion of more coherent regulatory policy across government.

Trend in RIA adoption across OECD jurisdictions

Source: OECD (2009), Indicators of Regulatory Management Systems, p. 64, Paris.

• Regulatory Impact Analysis: A Tool for Policy Coherence (2009)
• Introductory Handbook for Undertaking Regulatory Impact Analysis (2008)
• Building an Institutional Framework for Regulatory Impact Analysis: Guidance for Policy Makers (2008)
• Indicators of Regulatory Management Systems (2007) 
• RIA in OECD Countries and Challenges for Developing Countries (2005)
• RIA Inventory (2004)

• Regulatory Impact Analysis – Best Practices in OECD Countries (1997)

• Ten good practices in the design and implementation of RIA (1997)

• 1995 Recommendation of the Council of the OECD on Improving the Quality of Government Regulation (1995)

Contact information: gregory.bounds@oecd.org.