Improving Regulatory Impact Assessment in Russian Federation

The paper describes the procedure of regulatory impact assessment in Russia and abroad as a promising tool for improving the quality of government regulation and regulatory framework. The paper analyzes the existing concepts of RIA, describes the place and role of RIA in the system of government regulation and gives a detailed description of the literature on the research topic. Special attention is paid to the description of RIA procedure within OECD and CIS. The implementation of RIA at the federal level in Russia is analyzed. The obtained results are summarized. The work is based on the analysis of existing problems in russian model of RIA and its systematization. The paper proposes a hypothesis that solution of these problems will improve RIA procedure at the federal level in Russia. During the research in-depth interviews with representatives of executive authorities and experts in the field of RIA were conducted. The author concludes that the most comprehensive measure to minimize the negative impact of these problems on RIA procedure is to introduce a three-level model of RIA at the federal level and propose possible options for its implementation. In order to strengthen the positive effect of the proposed measure, it is suggested to expand the object of assessment, narrow subject area of RIA in Russia, and specify the degree of regulatory impact, including the use of quantitative indicators. As a result of the implementation of this measures, it is expected that a significant number of identified problems in RIA procedure will be solved and, as a consequence, the quality of RIA at the federal level will increase. Key words - Regulatory impact assessment, analysis of RIA problems, improvement of RIA procedure, three-level RIA model, smart regulation, regulatory policy.