This paper explores use of the Delphi technique on regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in order to select criteria as well as to analyze the non-neutrality of stakeholders in the Portuguese case study. Although the decision-making process has been supporting a different prescriptive approach, there is no neutral decision, which can reflect on the (in)efficiency of the government's action. To cope with imperfect knowledge, we have built the link between the objectives from Law no. 194/2009, which determines the regulatory framework in the Portuguese water sector and its potential criteria. Moreover, the elicitation weights for each criterion previously selected were framed in an innovative way, under a different perspective, either customers, municipalities or concessionaires. Evidence advises that there are relevant myopic, omission, splitting, and insensitivity biases for decision analysis, because of the distortion of input. Thus, the Delphi technique enables the decision makers to obtain reliable information before taking a decision. The results in terms of a different perspective for each criterion enable us not only to identify the non-neutrality of decision analysis, but also to (re)think the stakeholder's participation into the context of the Law referred to. Finally, this approach could consolidate our understanding concerning the potentialities of the Delphi technique in RIA, especially in policies with several objectives.

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This paper suggests a regulatory impact assessment (RIA) to evaluate the potential effects of ‘Resolution law no. 08/2016’ in the Brasília water sector under different perspectives: customers, regulators and local providers. Currently, political/rational and expert/politician terms are not considered integrated parts of the decision process, which could create a non-desirable impact on utility services. Thus, by using the RIA policy tool, regulators would be able to develop a basis for making good decisions rooted in evidence. From that point of view, RIA was set in order to provide the necessary framework capable of considering the multiple dimensions of Resolution law no. 08/2016 (quality of services, safeguarding infrastructural and economic aspects, environmental sustainability and governance) for water services. The multicriteria decision analysis combined with participatory methods were used to support RIA and overcome possible bias from judgments along the process. As a result, the current policy option defined by the regulator did not meet the stakeholders' expectation. Finally, the proposed method can be considered as a useful regulatory tool, which supports effective outcomes with legitimacy.

Regulatory governance is considered as a new era in the state's intervention, and it is vital to foster both qualitative and quantitative performances of regulators. In this paper, the authors argue that the absence of governance principles allows regulators to justify the adoption of instruments to improve it. Five core regulatory principles, particularly accountability, administrative capacity, open government, regulatory quality, and rule of law build the bridge between regulatory governance and regulatory substance. The authors propose the application of a multicriteria modelling method (ELECTRE TRI‐C) in order to conduct the assessment and categorization of Brazilian subnational regulators according to the presence of governance, encompassing the opinions of legitimate stakeholders. The levels of regulatory governance are calculated for the regulators in order to provide some determinants of good governance, which could be stimulated by regulatory impact assessment, as a policy tool that improves institutional environments.

Brazilian's framework of water and sanitation services (WSS) is complex, with several actors from different legal natures and varied rules. The new Brazilian sanitation law aims to achieve universal access to WSS and effective provision of services, encouraging more efficiency by promoting competitiveness. However, the regulatory governance of the sector poses a challenge to achieve these objectives. This article addresses identifying and analyzing the WSS structures based on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework, which provides a multidimensional conceptual map that combines levels of macro and micro situations. Databases from the National Sanitation Information System (SNIS) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) were cross-referenced to evaluate the structures that exist in the provision of WSS, focusing on municipalities located in the metropolitan regions and urban agglomerations of Brazil. It is possible to conclude that the IAD Framework helps to clarify the actors, its functions, responsibilities, and the interactions between them, as well as the exogenous factors and how they influence the action arena, reaching recommendations, supported by a Delphi approach, such as to improve industry regulation in terms of governance and regulatory governance.