Research Report
Ⅰ. Background and Purpose
□ Since the 1990s, studies have been conducted in Switzerland by people in business fields and scholars in earnest, to examine whether a certain regulation imposed an administrative burden that adversely affected business activities.
□ In particular, the Standard Cost Model and the Regulatory Cost Model had been developed and applied since 2000 as methods for measuring costs so as to enable the quantitative estimation of the regulatory costs incurred with respect to businesses, and the Regulatory-Checkup process was developed in 2011.
□ The Regulatory-Checkup process was developed as a means for measuring the regulatory costs in 15 sectors in which a great amount of the regulatory costs was incurred with respect to businesses so as to formulate detailed and practicable proposals or recommendations that could help businesses save costs consequently by reducing the regulatory costs.
□ This study provides reference data useful for the development of methodologies for measuring the regulatory costs in regulatory reform and the evaluation of legislation in the Republic of Korea by reviewing introductory books for the application of Switzerland's Regulatory-Checkup process and cases to which such process has actually been applied in the context of building legislation.
Ⅱ. Major Contents
□ The Regulatory-Checkup process is a research methodology that a group of experts in relevant fields can apply for the ex post facto estimation of the costs of current regulations that impose a heavy burden on businesses and for the formulation of plans for improvement.
□ The aim of the Regulatory-Checkup process is not to precisely and accurately estimate the regulatory costs incurred due to a specific statute, but to propose plans for enhancing reasonableness in the conception of the costs incurred by regulations and for the practicable simplification of regulations, while taking into consideration the investment of limited resources in the administrative sector and the business sector.
□ The Regulatory-Checkup process is to formulate a plan for the simplification of regulations so as to reduce the regulatory costs by conducting surveys on the direct costs of regulations to businesses and by examining the direct costs quantitatively and qualitatively.
□ The overall measuring process of the Regulatory-Checkup is adjusted by the federal government, and such process is composed of seven main sections (A to G) and divided into 13 respective steps.
□ The regulatory costs calculated in the research on building legislation were borne only by businesses and assessed as negative to the current economic situation of Switzerland, and as a result of such calculation it was found that a large amount of the regulatory costs were incurred in protection from fire, protection of citizens, and applications for building permits.
Ⅲ. Expected Effects
□ The methodology for regulatory reform focused on the Switzerland's policy for alleviating administrative burdens to businesses can be used as objective data with which it can be determined whether the regulation imposed due to a specific statute may be alleviated or simplified.
□ The Regulatory-Checkup process can be introduced to the evaluation of legislation and can be applied particularly to cases where it is necessary to measure the administrative costs to businesses, since the statute subject to such evaluation contains many provisions applicable to businesses, and can contribute to the formulation of the optimum alternative for the alleviation of administrative burdens to businesses.