This publication provides countries with a Framework for Regulatory Policy Evaluation, an overview of evaluation practices in OECD countries and concrete examples.

Annotation This publication provides countries with a Framework for Regulatory Policy Evaluation, an overview of evaluation practices in OECD countries and concrete examples. It also reports key findings of three expert papers on the evaluation of regulatory policy that informed the development of the Framework.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role regulation plays in the economy and society, but has also exposed gaps in domestic and international rule-making that have cost lives and money. The 2021 Regulatory Policy Outlook, the third in the series, maps country efforts to improve regulatory quality in line with the 2012 OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance, and shares good regulatory practices that can help close the gaps.

This report is part of the series OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy produced under the auspices of the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee. As with other reports in the series, it extends and elaborates on principles highlighted in the 2012 Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance.

The stock of laws has been growing steadily over time in countries as a result of governments responding to new and emerging challenges. Yet these and other new laws do not always fit well with existing regulatory frameworks, especially as economies and countries are becoming ever-increasingly more interconnected. The OECD Best Practice Principles for Reviewing the Stock of Regulation offers a practical and flexible framework for countries to follow when reviewing laws.

This report encourages governments to “think big” about the relevance of regulatory policy and assesses the recent efforts of OECD countries to develop and deepen regulatory policy and governance.

Relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability are widely used evaluation criteria, particularly in international development co-operation. They help to determine the merit or worth of various interventions, such as strategies, policies, programmes or projects. This guidance aims to help evaluators and others to better understand those criteria, and improve their use.