Incorporating Evaluation into the Regulatory Process

Abstract

For the last two decades there have been substantial attention and resources devoted to increasing evaluation of government programs in an effort to promote evidenced-based and performance-based policies. However, federal efforts to promote evaluation through the Government Performance and Results Act and the Performance Assessment Rating Tool have had limited success. This paper seeks to evaluate the recent efforts at evaluation and provide guidance for how future efforts can be shaped. We provide a stylized model for evaluation in the regulatory process that is consistent with prior federal initiatives. We then examine four categories of barriers to implementation of this stylized model – cognitive barriers, social/cultural barriers, organizational barriers, and incentive barriers. We then present suggestions for how future evaluation efforts can be formulated to better overcome these barriers.

Keywords: Government Performance, Evaluation, Regulation, Incentives, PART, GPRA, GPRAMA

JEL Classification: H1, K00