Abstract

Evaluating the outcomes of the large-scale reforms of regulatory policies and enforcement and inspection practices conducted in Russia requires a business perspective, making this study highly relevant to the current governance agenda. The goal of the paper is to evaluate the private businesses’ perceptions regarding the quality of state regulatory enforcement and inspection activities and the regulatory burden on businesses. The subject of the study is the quality of state regulatory enforcement and inspection activities, including its justification, effectiveness, and efficiency, and the regulatory burden. The key method of the study is a representative sociological survey of private business entities. The results presented in the paper include the analysis of private business perceptions regarding all parameters of state regulatory enforcement and inspection quality (justification, effectiveness, and efficiency) as well as evaluations of regulatory burden. The study concludes that the perceptions of justified nature and efficiency of state regulatory enforcement activities have improved, compared to the outcomes of previous surveys conducted in 2017, 2020, and 2021. The business perceptions of adequacy of the regulatory requirements and the ease of compliance have also improved. However, the perceived impact of state regulatory enforcement on reducing risks of damage to the public values still remains low. No significant changes have been recorded in the perception of regulatory burden. The novelty of the study is related to collection and analysis of new empirical data on how businesses perceive the quality of regulatory enforcement and inspection activities and regulatory burden. The recommendations made based on the study results suggest the need for further improvement of both regulatory enforcement and regulation itself. Both regulation and regulatory enforcement activities should be more oriented at minimizing the risks of damage to public values and strengthening the positive impact of inspection activity on the safety of business facilities, processes and products