Abstract

The use of Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) in several OECD countries is rapidly gaining relevance. Following this trend, Italy has recently adopted some provisions pointing in the direction of an appraisal of administrative regulations in terms of their benefits and costs. After a brief survey of the Italian scenario, the Authors present a comparative overview of past and recent practice for carrying out RIAS in United States, United Kingdom and briefly in some other Northern European countries. The aim of the paper is to open a debate on the methodologies for regulatory appraisal. The methodology of benefit-cost analysis of regulation, as one of the possible tools for the appraisal of regulatory proposals, is then discussed in some details. By showing some of the strengths and pitfalls of such technique, the Authors emphasize that the role of benefit-cost analysis should be to provide information relevant to the decision, not to provide the decision. Hence, some tentative conclusions over the modalities of using benefit-cost analysis are drawn.