Subject:
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Institute for Management Research |
Organization:
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Bestuurskunde t/m 2019 Bestuurskunde (leerstoel) |
Journal title:
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Journal of European Public Policy
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Abstract:
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Theoretically, ex-post legislative (EPL) evaluations play an important
role in the European regulatory cycle. By critically assessing the administration,
compliance or outcomes of legislation, they may allow for learning
and inform enforcement. At the same time, the European Commission may
have incentives not to evaluate, as EPL evaluations may lead to undesired
policy change or repeal. Furthermore, the development of systematic, highquality
EPL evaluations is threatened by more technical problems in the
sphere of evaluability. Hence, the odds are against the systematic production
of high-quality evaluations in the European Union (EU). This article assesses
this argument by conducting a meta evaluation of the coverage and quality of
ex-post legislative evaluations by the European Commission, using two novel
datasets. The main findings are that EPL evaluation coverage indeed is patchy,
with no clear upward trend in recent years. EPL evaluation is primarily a
matter of legislative obligation instead of own initiative. There is great scope,
finally, for enhancing the quality of EPL evaluations, by improving methodological
quality, stakeholder involvement and transparency.
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