IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jriskr/v15y2012i2p169-186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The first five years of the EU Impact Assessment system: a risk economics perspective on gaps between rationale and practice

Author

Listed:
  • Jacopo Torriti
  • Ragnar Löfstedt

Abstract

In 2003, the European Commission (EC) started using Impact Assessment (IA) as the main empirical basis for its major policy proposals. The aim was to systematically assess ex ante the economic, social and environmental impacts of European Union (EU) policy proposals. In parallel, research proliferated in search for theoretical grounds for IAs and in an attempt to evaluate empirically the performance of the first sets of IAs produced by the EC. This paper combines conceptual and evaluative studies carried out in the first five years of EU IAs. It concludes that the great discrepancy between rationale and practice calls for a different theoretical focus and a higher emphasis on evaluating empirically crucial risk economics aspects of IAs, such as the value of statistical life, price of carbon, the integration of macroeconomic modelling and scenario analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacopo Torriti & Ragnar Löfstedt, 2012. "The first five years of the EU Impact Assessment system: a risk economics perspective on gaps between rationale and practice," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 169-186, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:15:y:2012:i:2:p:169-186
    DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2011.634512
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2011.634512
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13669877.2011.634512?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Norman & Kirkpatrick, Colin, 2004. "A Pilot Study of the Quality of European Commission Extended Impact Assessment," Impact Assessment Research Centre (IARC) Working Papers 30580, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anja Bauer & Leo Capari & Daniela Fuchs & Titus Udrea, 2023. "Diversification, integration, and opening: developments in modelling for policy," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(6), pages 977-987.
    2. Jacopo Torriti, 2017. "The Risk of Residential Peak Electricity Demand: A Comparison of Five European Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, March.
    3. Christopher Carrigan & Stuart Shapiro, 2017. "What's wrong with the back of the envelope? A call for simple (and timely) benefit–cost analysis," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), pages 203-212, June.
    4. Lee Yong-Shik, 2015. "Call for a New Analytical Model for Law and Development," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-67, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lee, Norman, 2004. "Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Integrated Assessment," Impact Assessment Research Centre (IARC) Working Papers 30575, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    2. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:1065-1081 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Wouter De Ridder & John Turnpenny & Måns Nilsson & Anneke Von Raggamby, 2007. "A Framework For Tool Selection And Use In Integrated Assessment For Sustainable Development," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(04), pages 423-441.
    4. Aleksandra Nacewska-Twardowska, 2014. "The evolution of European Union Preferential Trade Agreements," International Economics, University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, issue 8, pages 209-220, December.
    5. Julia Hertin & John Turnpenny & Andrew Jordan & Mans Nilsson & Duncan Russel & Björn Nykvist, 2009. "Rationalising the Policy Mess? Ex Ante Policy Assessment and the Utilisation of Knowledge in the Policy Process," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(5), pages 1185-1200, May.
    6. Caroline Cecot & Robert Hahn & Andrea Renda & Lorna Schrefler, 2008. "An evaluation of the quality of impact assessment in the European Union with lessons for the US and the EU," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(4), pages 405-424, December.
    7. Jacopo Torriti, 2007. "Impact Assessment in the EU: A Tool for Better Regulation, Less Regulation or Less Bad Regulation?," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 239-276, March.
    8. Ragnar E. Lofstedt, 2007. "The 'Plateau-ing' of the European Better Regulation Agenda: An Analysis of Activities Carried out by the Barroso Commission1," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 423-447, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:15:y:2012:i:2:p:169-186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJRR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.