Effectiveness of control and enforcement activities in selected areas: Statistics and sociology

The ongoing reform of control and enforcement is aimed at improving the protection of public values such as life and health, property, environment, and historical and cultural monuments while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden on businesses. The first evaluations of the reform demonstrate that achievements have been modest so far. Administrative costs for businesses have slightly decreased. While the share of citizens rating their safety from major risks as sufficient has somewhat increased, most citizens still rate the extent of their safety as rather low or very low. The article aims to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of control and enforcement performance in selected areas characterized by intensive activities of government control bodies, namely the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Federal Service for Labour and Employment, and the Federal Consumer Protection Service. Both statistical sources, including court statistics, and sociological data are used for this purpose. The paper demonstrates a significant variation between the statistical data and the outcomes of sociological surveys in terms of scale and frequency of cases of harm to public values in the respective fields. The statistical data used by control and enforcement bodies are not oriented at evaluating the outcomes of their activities and do not allow the estimation of the real extent of public value protection and its dynamics. To evaluate the situation as it is and develop recommendations for improving control and enforcement activities, data from various sources, including sociological ones, should be used. Such an approach would allow one to evaluate the impact of control and enforcement activities at the level of relevant risks and to reduce the probability of data manipulation. © 2020, Editorial Board of the Journal Economic Policy.