In the last decade, many arguments have emerged for encouraging public participation in environmental policy making and management. While some have argued that, in democratic societies, people simply have a right to a participatory role, others base arguments for public participation on the idea that lay people may have access to knowledge which is unknown to officially sanctioned experts. Local people may count as experts about aspects of their neighbourhood or they may have insights into the behaviour of plant operators

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This paper considers the question of how ex ante predictions of the costs of complying with environmental regulations compare with ex post evaluations of actual compliance costs. This is an important issue given the emergence of requirements for regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in many policy arenas (see OECD, 1997) and the conclusion of previous research that the predicted costs of compliance with environmental regulations often exceed actual costs (see Haq et al., 2001). Based upon a review of the different stages of the regulatory decision-making process, this paper suggests that the reasons for these differences relate to strategic behaviour by affected parties in the policy formulation stage, problems in anticipating the

During the negotiation of international and European environmental regulations, the industry sector typically raises the issue of the cost of compliance. It is often maintained that the cost of complying with environmental regulations restricts business profitability and competitiveness. This paper provides an overview of the cost of compliance by considering the arguments, strategies and cost estimates that were presented by industry during the negotiations of several different environmental regulations in Europe and North America, and at the global level. It examines the difficulties associated with comparing costs using pre‐ and post‐regulation cost data and discusses the strategies adopted during the negotiations of the regulation and once the regulation was implemented. The paper concludes that although some proposals for regulation may impose burdens on industry, which it will oppose, industry has come to recognize that environmental regulation does not necessarily mean increased costs at the level anticipated. While regulation cannot guarantee innovation or lead to greater competitiveness and higher productivity for all firms, those that seize the opportunities will usually gain benefits. The paper reinforces the view that the EU should give careful consideration to the costs presented by industry as in the past it has tended to overestimate costs of compliance and underestimate the potential for the development of new technology. The introduction of independent cost assessments and technology assessments may be one way of overcoming this problem. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment