ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the design stage of the regulatory policy cycle. The design stage refers to the processes by which plausible alternative regulatory regimes for delivering the regulatory objective are formulated. The chapter explores the key regulatory design variables: who should regulate; who should be regulated; how; to what standards; and through what institutional arrangements. It also explores how these variables might be combined into a broad and manageable set of alternative regime options. The chapter focuses on the construction of the regulatory regimes. It also examines how and from where regime design ideas can be generated, and the principles that should guide this process. Most regimes are a combination of the two, with prescriptive standards being used to 'fill out' outcome-orientated standards, and desired outcomes being used to focus the application of prescriptive standards. The approach to option generation has followed a largely technically rational and systematic path consistent with those found in better regulation guides.
