Mauro Visaggio
Regulatory Impact Assessment program (RIA) is a key policy instrument in the regulatory processes that are being spread throughout the world since the seventies. Despite its diffusion, RIA has not delivered the expected results. This paper joins the debate on RIA evaluation through the development of composite indicators, which should identify where the program failures are hidden. At first, it defines a conceptual framework of RIA from which the composite indicator is derived. In a static perspective, RIA is devised as a circle composed by two parts i.e., implementation and evaluation. Both parts go through three steps: inputs, outputs and outcomes. Then, the paper splits the steps of implementation part into key dimensions, derives individual indicators by detailing them and records indicators in dimensions. In a dynamic perspective, if the evaluation part is activated, it generates an evolutionary process going through three phases: readiness, usage and impact. Finally, the paper defines the aggregate RIA quality composite indicator as the sum of key quality composite indicators representing the three steps of the implementation part.