Measuring policy learning: regulatory impact assessment in Europe

Do analytic approaches to policy appraisal, specifically regulatory impact assessment (RIA), enable complex organizations to learn? To answer this question, this article distinguishes between types of learning (instrumental, legitimacy-seeking emulation, and political), spells out their micro-foundations, and formulates expectations about evidence drawing on the literature on knowledge utilization. Findings from Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the EU corroborate emulation and to some extent political learning rather than instrumental learning. The conclusions explain why some types of learning prevail over others.