The purpose, intended audience, and role of Regulatory Impact Assessment in supporting better regulatory decisions.
Open Chapter 1
TrustBridge / Open-access policy resource
Undertaking Regulatory Impact Assessment in India
A practical guide for policymakers, regulators, decision-makers, and their advisors in government.
01
A practical framework for evidence-informed regulation
Regulatory Impact Assessment makes the reasoning behind a regulatory decision visible. It helps practitioners define the problem, compare credible options, understand who is affected, and assess whether expected benefits justify the costs.
This web book presents that process as a structured, navigable methodology supported by detailed examples, evidence, and downloadable resources.
02The web book
A structured ten-chapter methodology
Select a chapter title to open it. Use the adjacent expand control to review its sections.
The core components of Regulatory Impact Assessment and the questions that structure the assessment.
Open Chapter 2Diagnosing market failure, defining the relevant market, and testing regulatory jurisdiction.
- Market failure
- How to identify market failure
- Does the market failure fall within the regulator’s jurisdiction?
- References
Developing regulatory and non-regulatory options while accounting for government failure.
- Are there private solutions that address the problem/market failure?
- Is there a risk of government failure?
- When to Start Designing Options
- Policymakers should consider multiple options
- Safeguards in Designing Regulatory Options
- Iterative and Participatory Design of Options
- References
Mapping affected groups, markets, institutions, and distributional consequences.
- Stakeholders Directly Impacted by Regulatory Options
- Factors Impacted: Markets, Environment, and Society
- Preventing regulatory capture
- References
Classifying, estimating, and documenting direct, indirect, and distributional costs.
- Role of Cost Identification in Regulatory Impact Assessment
- Types of costs
- Distribution of Costs Across Stakeholders
- Identifying Costs in Practice
- Methods and Data Requirements for Estimation of Costs
- Data Requirements and Sources
- Methods for Estimating Costs for key costs of regulations
- Addressing Uncertainty and Data Gaps
- Using Proxies for Estimation of Costs
- How to Frame Assumptions Credibly
- References
Linking benefits to welfare gains and estimating who benefits, when, and by how much.
- Linking Benefits to Market Failure and Unrealised Welfare
- Nature and Diversity of Benefits
- Identifying Beneficiaries Across Stakeholders
- Estimation of Benefits
- Addressing Challenges in Benefits estimation
- References
Discounting future impacts and testing how uncertainty changes the result.
- Determining present values of costs and benefits
- Methodology: Discounting and Net Present Value
- Addressing uncertainty - Sensitivity Analysis
- References
Combining impacts consistently across stakeholders, time, and regulatory options.
- Conceptual Foundations of Aggregation
- Key Analytical Considerations and Challenges
- Maintaining proportionate boundaries to RIA analysis
- Transparency and justification of assumptions and parameters
- Different levels and forms of regulatory analysis
- References
Using net benefits, multi-criteria analysis, and cost-effectiveness analysis to choose an option.
Open Chapter 1003Applied Regulatory Impact Assessment
View case studies Case studies
Financial regulation / I
Default Loss Guarantees in Digital Lending
Applies Regulatory Impact Assessment to digital-lending provisions in the Reserve Bank of India's draft credit-facilities directions. The study compares disclosure, caps, self-regulation, and risk-based approaches, and identifies risk-based regulation as the strongest net-impact option.
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Securities regulation / II
Shortening Securities Settlement Cycles
Examines the costs, benefits, and distributional effects of SEBI interventions to shorten securities settlement cycles, including the transition to T+1 and the assessment of T+0 settlement.
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Food regulation / III
Coffee-Chicory Labelling Requirements
Examines FSSAI options for coffee-chicory composition labels, from the status quo and outcome-based requirements to co-regulation and front-of-pack disclosures. The study weighs compliance costs against consumer information, transparency, and welfare benefits.
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