Presentation by Gary Banks, Chair of the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee, and Dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Australia, at the 7th Expert Meeting on Measuring Regulatory Performance: Embedding Regulatory Policy in Law and Practice, Breakout session 3, Reykjavik, 18-19 June 2015. Further information is available at http://www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/measuring-regulatory-performance.htm

1. Embedding and assessing
ex- post evaluation
Gary Banks
Presentation to OECD’s 7th Expert Meeting on Measuring
Regulatory Performance
June 2015
Reykjavik, Iceland

2. Ex post evaluation: why bother?
• All regulations are ‘experiments’
• Many will not have been done well
• Others will have passed their ‘use by date’
• The ‘stock’ of regulation is much larger than
the flow
• The net gains from reforming it are potentially
very large (eg 5+ percent gain in Australia’s
GDP from 1980-90s reforms)
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3. 3
Multiple costs of regulation
Benefits foregone if
regulation is ineffective
Ø other perverse effects
Ø other ‘non -market’
distortions
Fees and charges a
Economic distortions
Ø dead weight losses
Ø lower investment
Ø lower innovation
Substantive compliance
costs
Ø investments in systems
training
Ø higher cost of investment
Administrative costs to
business
Ø paper work time
Ø reporting time
Administration cost to
regulators
Benefitsneededtojustifycosts
Compliance costs ‘Distortion’ costs
Costs to government Costs to business b
Costs to community
Coststocommunity

4. 4
‘Closing’ the regulatory cycle
Stage II–Establishment
Ø Design to include
embedded reviews
Ø Development of regulator
management strategies
Stage IV− Review
Ø Programmed reviews
o Sunsetting
o Embedded
o PIRS
Ø Ad hoc reviews
o In-depth
o Specific benchmarking
o Public stocktakes
Stage I− Decision
Ø RIS triage
o Identify need for
embedded reviews
o Set sunset flags
Ø Stock-flow linkage rules
Stage III − Administration
Ø Regulator management
strategies
Ø Monitoring review
requirements
Lessons from regulators
on what works
Lessons from
expost evaluation

5. Four key questions for ex post evaluation
• Appropriate? (Valid rationale for regulating?)
• Effective? (Realised the intended outcome?)
• Efficient? (Any unnecessary costs or impacts?)
• Is there a better alternative?
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6. 6
Three broad approaches to ex post evaluation
Programmed reviews Ad hoc reviews Ongoing ‘management’
•Sunsetting
•Embedded in statute
•Post implementation
reviews
– process failure
– catch-all
•Public stocktakes
– economy-wide
– sectoral
•‘Principles-based’
reviews
•Benchmarking
•‘In-depth’ reviews
•Regulator strategies
•Stock-flow linkages
– Budgets
– ‘In-Out’ / ‘Offsets’
– RIA based
consideration
•Red tape reduction
targets

7. Why evaluate the ‘system’?
• System design is experimental too
− hard to know in advance which approaches will work (best)
− and even after the event this may not be apparent without
monitoring, consultation and analysis
• Evaluations must be seen to ‘pay their way’
− They involve time, effort and skills in short supply
− Some will oppose them for what they may expose
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8. Is the system well designed in principle?
• Does it ‘cover the bases’? (No gaps?)
• Is it ‘proportionate’ in the application of
different approaches/tools?
• Are the tools themselves well designed?
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9. 9
Effort versus impact: an APC assessment (2011)
Potentially low return
Ø Sunsetting
Ø Regulator stock management
Ø Red tape targets
b
Ø RIS stock-flow link
Ø Broad redtape cost estimation
Ø Regulatory budgets and one-in one-
out
a
Ø Frequent stocktakes
Potentially high return
Ø Known high cost areas and known
solutions from past reviews
Ø Regulator management strategies
where weak in the past
Ø Periodic stocktakes
Ø In-depth reviews
Ø Embedded statutory reviews
Ø Benchmarking
Ø Packaged sunset reviews
HigheffortLoweffort

10. Is the system being (properly) utilized in
practice?
• Have evaluations actually been conducted
when they should?
• Were they adequately resourced?
• Were the reviewers appropriate?
• Was due process (incl consultation) followed?
DATA: ‘tick a box’ monitoring (and central
storage of data)
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11. What impacts have evaluations had?
• Changes in volume of regulation?
−Yes or no (tick a box), and simple arithmetic
• Changes in regulation’s benefits and/or costs?
−Evidence collected from individual evaluations
(may include qualitative information)
−Economy-wide analysis or surveys
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12. Some lessons from Australia
• Value of a ‘portfolio’ of evaluation approaches
and tools, but need screening & prioritization
• Key role of institutions – (i) to monitor usage
(ii) collect and store data, and (iii) undertake
reviews
• However simpler systems work best (KISS)!
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