Legislation, Regulatory Impact Assessment and Simulation

• Autore: Klaus G. Troitzsch
• Pagine: 57-58

Legislation, Regulatory Impact Assessment and Simulation

KLAUS G. TROIT ZS CH∗

SUMM ARY:1. Introduction – 1.1. Overview – 1.2. Approaches to Social Simulation

– 2. A Short Histor y of Regulatory Impact Assessment – 3. Static Microsimulation

for Regulatory Impact Assessment – 3.1. Tax and Transfer Regulations – 3.2. Euro-

pean and National Legislation on Wine – 4. Dynamic Microsimulation Supporting

Legislation – 4.1. Demography and Long-term Welfare Planning – 4.2. Urban Plan-

ning – 5. Policy Modelling and Agent-based Modelling – 5.1. Participatory Modelling

Strategies – 5.2. Example – 6. Conclusion

1. INT RODU CT IO N

1.1. Overview

This article gives an overview over various possible applications of sim-

ulation approaches to legislation. Simulation has been used in legislative

processes for several decades, nearly from the time when simulation was

f‌irst used in the social sciences, particularly in political science. Its main

use so far was in assessing the impact of alternative political strategies be-

fore new legislation would be set into force. This is why Section 2. of this

article f‌irst discusses the role of regulatory impact assessment. Sections 3

through 5 are then devoted to a discussion of three of the major approaches

to social simulation and their use for impact assessment: static and dynamic

microsimulation as well as agent-based simulation. Whereas the two former

have a tradition of more than half a century, the latter made its entrance

into the repertoire of computational social science only some twenty years

ago, although there were several forerunners before the term “agent-based

simulation” was coined which used similar techniques.

∗The Author is professor emeritus at the Universität Koblenz-Landau (Germany). Sec-

tion 2. extends the introduction of the earlier paper M. BIC KING , K.G. TROI TZ SCH,

M.A. WIMM ER,Regulatory Impact Assessment: Modelling and Simulation to Facilitate Policy

Choices, in Ernst A., Kuhn S. (eds.), “Proceedings of the 3rd WorldCongress on Social Simu-

lation. Scientif‌ic Advances in Understanding Societal Processes and Dynamics - WCSS2010”,

CD-ROM, Center for EnvironmentalSystems Research, University of Kassel, 2010. Section

5.2. discusses f‌irst results of the OCOPOMO project (co-funded by the EU within FP7, con-

tract No. 248128; the European Commission cannot be made liable for any content) directed

by Maria Wimmer at the Universityof Koblenz-Landau. The Authoralso gratefully remem-

bers the time when he f‌irst came into contact with regulatory impact assessment during his

membership in the Hamburg state legislature from 1974 till 1978.

“Informatica e diritto”, Vol. XXII, 2013, n. 1, pp. 57-74

XXXIX annata – Seconda Serie - Fasc. monografico S. Faro, N. Lettieri (a cura di), "Law and Computational Social Science", ESI, Napoli, 2013, 352 p.