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OECD has provided a definition of RIA as a systematic process of identifying and
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assessing impacts from a regulation. The systematic process has to employ a consistent
method of assessment such as the cost-benefit analysis and the lawmaker has to compare
whether pursuing a government’s intervention policy or other alternative policies would

fulfil the determined objective of the policy with the least costs. The lawmaker has to
assess both the government’s intervention and other alternative policies from the same

method and the lawmakers have to explore all possible alternatives before deciding to pick
the most efficient policy. In short, RIA is an analytical process assessing the efficiency and
necessity of enacting a new law. RIA is a tool aiding a decision-making process to reach the

most efficient decision. Therefore, the result of RIA might not lead to a concrete conclusion

on whether enacting a new law would be the best method to reach the determined goal
but the result of RIA will aid the decision-making process of the decision-makers to reach
the best decision as much as possible. As research has observed, “the accuracy of RIA does

not necessarily lead to the best decision made by the Government but asking the right
question and understanding, in a realistic sense, the potential impacts of the drafted bill
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do.” Hence, the significance of RIA does not stem directly from the result of its assessment
but the assessment process, focusing on critical, comprehensive, reasonable and evidence-
based analysis, leading to the result.

In 1995, OECD published Reference Checklist for Regulatory Decision-making, or
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commonly known as OECD Checklist , comprising ten questions that a lawmaker has to

17 OECD, “Introductory Handbook for Undertaking Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA),” OECD, (2008)
accessed 8 September 2020, from https://www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/4478 94 72.pdf p.3
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Thailand Development Research Institute, “ Research project on Regulatory Impact Assessment”, Law
Reform Division, Office of the Council of State (2014) accessed 8 September 2020, from
https://www.lawreform.go.th/ uploads/files/1574751600-5lkm1-ee09v.pdf น. 21
19 The OECD Reference Checklist consists of 10 questions as follows:

(1) Is the problem correctly defined? The problem to be solved should be precisely stated, giving
evidence of its nature and magnitude, and explaining why it has arisen (identifying the incentives of
affected entities).
(2) Is government action justified? Government intervention should be based on explicit evidence that

government action is justified, given the nature of the problem, the likely benefits and costs of action
(based on a realistic assessment of government effectiveness), and alternative mechanisms for addressing
the problem.
(3) Is regulation the best form of government action? Regulators should carry out, early in the regulatory
process, an informed comparison of a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory policy instruments,
considering relevant issues such as costs, benefits, distributional effects and administrative requirements.