They will identify good practices in the assessment of costs and benefits of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches, how cost-benefit analysis can be effectively integrated in Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and how information on costs and benefits can be presented to support government ministers and parliamentarians in their decision-making process.

Rolf Alter
Since 1 July 2009, Rolf Alter is Director for Public Governance and Territorial Development of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
Previously, he served for three years as Chief of Staff of OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría.

Rolf Alter joined the OECD’s Economics Department in 1991. Subsequently he worked in the Directorate for Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs, where he was also a Programme Director for the Investment Compact of the Stability Pact for South East Europe. Between 1996 and 1998, Mr. Alter was an advisor to the Executive Director of the OECD, before being appointed Head of the Regulatory Reform Programme of OECD. In 2002, he became the Deputy Director for Public Governance and Territorial Development.

Prior to joining the OECD, Mr. Alter was an economist in the International Monetary Fund, in Washington D.C. He started his professional career in 1981 in the German Ministry of Economy in Bonn.

Rolf Alter holds a doctorate degree from the University of Goettingen, Germany, following post-graduate work in Germany and the United States.

Christiane Arndt
Christiane Arndt joined the OECD in 2004 to work on governance indicators and the impact of governance on economic outcomes at the Development Centre. She currently co-ordinates the programme Measuring Regulatory Performance in the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate. Ms. Arndt is a member of the advisory committee of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index and was previously a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and a master’s degree in International Business Studies from the University of Maastricht, and a master’s degree in international Politics from Sciences Po in Paris.

Summary:
Policy-makers need evidence to identify the most efficient and effective approach before they make a decision to use regulation. The 2012 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory Policy (Recommendation) emphasises the importance of providing policy-makers with evidence of the costs and benefits of regulation and of alternative means of achieving policy goals. It recommends that Regulatory Impact Assessment should quantify the costs and benefits whenever possible and identify who is likely to benefit and who is likely to bear costs. This presentation will outline a new OECD project that will identify good practices and common principles to support countries in developing more effective systems for assessing the costs and benefits and economy-wide economic impacts of regulation and regulatory changes.

Volker Wittberg
Volker Wittberg is professor for SME management and better regulation at Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM) Bielefeld – University of Applied Sciences. He chairs the National Center for Bureaucratic Cost Reduction. At the same time he is head of FHM’s Institute for SME Management in Lippe, Detmold. His academic responsibilities cover the doctoral programs which are offered in cooperation with the University of Gloucestershire/UK. Volker Wittberg’s research focus is on regulatory impact assessment on the cost and benefit side with special interest for effects on SMEs. While in private industry Volker Wittberg worked for more than ten years as management consultant in multinational coorperations, SMEs as well as public administrations. He holds a doctoral degree in management from the University of Goettingen. His studies brought him to the universities of Bielefeld and Magdeburg as well as to Purdue University/USA.

Summary:
The research project sponsored by the Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, focusses on measuring the benefit of laws, using the example of sustainability. That is the benefit of the legislative decision itself in relation to the self-imposed legislature standards. At the moment no such systematic approaches exists. The aim is to develop a benefit measurement/estimation model with which in the most comprehensive and at the same time most practical way benefits of legislation can be presented. It needs to be clarified in advance basically, whatever is the benefit of a law in general and what it means in relation to sustainability. Sustainability is legitimately used for the benefit analysis of laws in Germany, according to several articles in the constitution and even by the highest German court.

Ken Warwick
Ken Warwick is an independent economics consultant and a Member of the UK’s Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC). Until recently, Ken was Director of Economics at the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Chair of the OECD’s Committee on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
On leaving the UK Government Economic Service in 2011, Ken set up his own business, Warwick Economics, and joined the RPC. As a member of the Committee, he is responsible for scrutinising Regulatory Impact Assessments (IA) produced by departments and providing expert advice on the quality of analysis and evidence supporting new regulatory proposals.
Ken takes a particular interest in the methodology of IA and also has expertise in economic analysis and public policy advice on productivity and economic growth, competitiveness, globalisation, international economics, innovation, climate change and evaluation. Educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities, Ken has also worked as an economist in the Foreign Office and the IMF.

Summary:
Consideration of the costs and benefits of different policy options is fundamental to good decision-making in any area, including regulation. The UK system of Impact Assessment treats costs and benefits in the same way and seeks to incorporate all impacts in the analysis, including wider social benefits and costs. There are three steps to measuring impacts: Identify > Quantify > Monetise.

Monetising benefits is often difficult, but it is important because it can give context to costs, show where regulation is and is not justified, and encourage a more proportionate approach to regulation. Some examples will be given from UK experience of innovative approaches to monetising benefits. At the same time, it is recognised that, even with monetisation, rarely will it be possible to present an Impact Assessment in the form of a single number – so alternative presentations are needed.

This workshop has been realized in cooperation with: