Government Policy and Regulation

ACCA P5 Advance Performance Management



Policy is described in the Concise Oxford dictionary as a course or general plan of action to be adopted by government, party, person etc

Policy – Policy Areas

Ø  Environmental/Green Policy - Environmental  protection – concern over environmental costs

Ø  Fiscal Policy - Public expenditure levels - concern with revenue and expenditure of government. Refers to budgetary policy of the government.

Ø  Fiscal Policy - Taxation levels  

Ø  Supply side policies are widely anti-regulatoryE.g. Wage regulation: prevents the labor market from achieving full employment - Supply side policy includes any policy that improves an economy’s productive potential and its ability to produce. There are several individual actions that a government can take to improve supply-side performance.

Ø  Monetary Policy - Exchange rates – Monetary policy concerns with cost of finance and supply and availability of money.

Ø  Monetary Policy - Interest rates

Ø  Consumers and workers Policy – Health and Safety Issues

Ø  Competition Policy - Restrictive practices - The European Commission ensures that European competition policy is implemented. The legislation is contained in Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (1958). The main areas of legislation include rules on antitrust, mergers, cartels, and State aid.

	Legislation	Regulation
Definition	Form or draft of a proposed statute presented to a legislature, but not yet enacted or passed and made law (Dictionary.com)	Guidelines from agencies designed to help implement and interpret laws passed by Congress (Administration Procedure Act)
Goals	To address a social or economic need or problem by changing the law	To lay out rules and procedures to follow when implementing programs to comply with the law
Example	Labour Legislation Consumer Protection Legislation Company Legislation Trade Legislation	Manuals Guidelines Circulars Notifications

Self-Regulation vs Government Regulation:  Self-regulation is voluntary layout of rules and procedures by organisation association and union to control and overview the activities of their members. Government regulation is mandatory guidelines for implementation which is overviewed and controlled through various government and public agencies.