Measuring and Managing the Costs of Red Tape: A Review of Recent Policy Developments

Over the last few years, red tape has come to be identified as an important policy area, and there has been rapid and relatively widespread adoption—in one form or another—of a Dutch-developed set of reforms aimed at significantly reducing the costs of compliance with government-imposed obligations to provide information (which have come to be referred to as 'administrative burdens'). This paper begins by examining the characteristics of the policy problems that these reforms are intended to address, and highlighting some of the challenges that the reforms can be expected to face. The Dutch-developed approach, and the UK adaptation of it, are then described, and specific ways in which the reforms have sought to influence information and incentive conditions—so as to generate reductions in administrative burdens—are assessed.