The Indicators on the Governance of Sector Regulators, sister indicators to the OECD’s Product Market Regulation Indicators, capture the governance arrangements of economic regulators in the energy, e-communications, rail transport, air transport and water sectors. Coverage extends to all OECD countries apart from the United States, as well as select non-OECD countries. 

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The indicators are structured around three pillars: independence, accountability and scope of action.

The independence component maps the degree to which a regulator operates independently and with no undue influence from both the political power and the regulated sectors. Questions are organised into three subsections: relationship with the executive, staff and budget. It seeks to measure aspects of de facto independence through a variety of dimensions beyond only de jure independence.

The accountability component covers the accountability of the regulator vis-à-vis various stakeholders, including the government, parliament, the regulated industry and the general public. It captures the adherence to regulatory management tools and looks at the collection, use, publication and reporting of performance information.


The scope of action component sheds light on the range of activities that the regulator performs, including tariff-setting, issuing standards, enforcement activities and sanctioning powers. 

 

The questionnaire benefited from the input of the OECD Network of Economic Regulators. Each question is anchored to the OECD normative framework, including the Best Practice Principles on the Governance of Regulators and further guidance developed by the Network of Economic Regulators. The results allow for benchmarking of governance arrangements across countries and sectors and provide a tool for regulatory agencies to assess their arrangements against good practice. 

 

Data Indicators and questionnaire responses are available for the years 2013 and 2018, although the scope and content of the questionnaire changed between these two vintages Indicators and Database for 2018 in Excel Indicators for 2013 in Excel and database for 2013 in Excel Schemata for 2013 in Excel and for 2018 in Excel Please cite the database as: OECD (2019), Indicators on the Governance of Sector Regulators (database), http://www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/governance-indicators.htm.

Analysis A. Durand and A. Pietikainen (2020), The Governance of Regulators in Latin America, OECD Regulatory Policy Working Papers, No. 13  Casullo, L., A. Durand and F. Cavassini (2019), "The 2018 Indicators on the Governance of Sector Regulators - Part of the Product Market Regulation (PMR) Survey", OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1564 OECD (2019), « Les Indicateurs sur la Gouvernance des Régulateurs Sectoriels: Résultats de l’analyse – 12 membres de RegulaE.Fr » Koske, I., et al. (2016), "Regulatory management practices in OECD countries", OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1296

 

Highlights: Governance of francophone energy regulators

The Secretariat expanded coverage to include twelve new energy regulators in 2019, all within francophone countries that are members of the RegulaE.Fr network. Energy regulators in twelve francophone countries participated in the expansion of the PMR indicators and a separate analysis: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. 

 

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For further information, please contact Martha Baxter, Regulatory Policy Division, OECD.

 

More work on:
Network of Economic Regulators	Performance of regulators	Independence of regulators	Behavioural insights
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