The research considers structures and practices of regulatory inspections and enforcement, and particularly the relevance and effects of purported “smarter inspections” methods, e.g. risk... Show more The research considers structures and practices of regulatory inspections and enforcement, and particularly the relevance and effects of purported “smarter inspections” methods, e.g. risk-based ones, and how they compare with previously existing practices. Specifically, it considers efficiency and effectiveness of inspections in terms of achieving public welfare, and their economic impact. The first part considers the history of regulatory inspections and how specific inspection institutions started to appear from the 19th century onwards. Of particular interest is how path dependency resulted in important differences in structures and methods between different fields and countries, and how these in turn produced different effects for the public. The second part looks at existing research on the interconnected issues of regulatory compliance drivers, regulatory discretion and risk and regulation. It concludes to the importance of combining several compliance drivers to achieve better results, to the appropriateness of structuring discretion in inspections and enforcement, and to the adequacy of “risk” as an instrument to do so. The third part looks at several case studies (in particular occupational safety and health in Britain and Germany) to consider whether risk-based, ‘smart’ approaches effectively deliver better results with lower burden, and tentatively concludes to the affirmative. Show less
