In the United States and elsewhere, government agencies are required to conduct regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) to weigh the benefits of regulatory proposals against their costs. These RIAs are invaluable tools for informing decision makers about the effects of regulatory choices; even regulatory decisions that are ultimately made on political, legal, ethical, or other grounds will benefit from the structured evaluation of tradeoffs and alternatives that a good RIA provides.
However, dense or complex RIAs can be challenging for policy officials and interested parties to comprehend and interpret, making it difficult to evaluate the evidence presented and to understand the likely consequences of alternative policy choices.
Consumers Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis
While numerous guidelines are aimed at people responsible for developing RIAs, none are geared toward non-specialist policymakers and interested stakeholders who will be reading RIAs as consumers. To address that gap, the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center gathered a diverse group of regulatory analysis experts with a goal of helping policy makers and others appreciate the value of RIAs, ask appropriate questions of them, and judge their implications for regulatory policy. The group’s final product, a “Consumers Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis: Ten Tips for being an Informed Policymaker,” appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. The short, open access article is available without a subscription. Here is a brief summary of each of the ten tips.