Evolutionary Multi-Level Regulatory Arrangements: The Impacts of the Resolution of Incoherencies

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the influence of regulatory arrangements on regulatory coherence and vice versa. Regulatory coherence means an absence of redundancy, lacunae and contradiction within the regulation, which is the set of rules which regulate the market. Any incoherence in the regulation is supposed to be a problem that regulators must resolve. Given its distribution of competence and coordination instruments, the regulatory arrangement should offer more or less facilities to tackle incoherencies. More precisely, we consider the influence of the characteristics of the regulatory arrangement on the prevalence of regulatory incoherencies, and the capacity to resolve incoherencies. These characteristics are the degree of participation of all the regulators involved in the decision-making process and the concentration of decision-making power in the main sector regulator, usually the sectoral IRA. The answer to this question relies on a detailed empirical knowledge about the frequency and kind of incoherencies which occur and how they are resolved. In addition, it is interesting to see how the decisions and actions that resolve incoherencies incrementally change the regulatory arrangement.