Closing the regulatory governance cycle through systematic ex post evaluation

Policy evaluation has become an institutionalised practice in the twentieth century and regulatory policy is no exception. However, evaluation of regulations is mainly carried out ex ante through the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) process while ex post evaluation remains the least developed of the regulatory tools. Country practices remain sporadic in this area. Important lessons can nevertheless be learnt from the application of ex post evaluation in a number of jurisdictions and provide promising opportunities to improve regulatory quality. This chapter defines the rationale for ex post evaluation, describes the possible approaches and their use in practice.