Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) is the systematic process of identification and quantification of benefits and costs likely to flow from regulatory or non-regulatory options for a policy under consideration. Countries apply a variety of analytic techniques as part of the RIA process, including cost-benefit analysis, cost-effective analysis, and multi--criteria analysis. RIA represents a core tool for ensuring the quality of new regulations through an evidence-based process for decision making. A well-functioning RIA system can assist in promoting policy coherence by making transparent the trade-offs inherent in regulatory proposals. RIA improves the use of evidence in policy making and reduces the incidence of regulatory failure arising from regulating when there is no case for doing so, or failing to regulate when there is a clear need. The process fosters integrity and trust in the regulation-making system through levers of transparency and accountability by disclosing the development process of the regulation. Yet, despite being one of the tools most widely adopted internationally as part of regulatory policy, effective implementation of RIA remains elusive in many cases. This is evidenced, for instance, by the existing gap between the legal mandate to conduct RIA and its actual practice and the limited number of countries that ensure that regulations guarantee a net benefit to society ().