The analysis of regulatory inflation between accounting and law

Any enacted legislation has several effects on national administration, local government and community at large. Many states have adopted norms and procedures to subject law-making decisions to ex-ante consultation and impact assessment in line with better regulation principles. The objective is to envisage advantages and disadvantages for enterprises, citizens and the functioning of the public administration. During the impact assessment a cost analysis of the different regulatory options is normally performed. This seminal paper aims at investigating the role of accounting techniques in the cost analysis in order to ascertain how the analysis is made and whether it could be improved. In particular, the study is concentrated on the Italian regulatory context with an outlook to the conformity costs whose notion has been introduced by the enactment of the Legislative Decree 231/2001 that imported into the Italian system the administrative liability of companies for certain offences perpetrated, in their own interest or for their own benefit, by their directors, employees and/or representatives.