Studies of the design of independent regulatory agencies have, so far, mainly focused on the relationship between regulators and politicians, and regulators and regulatees. Yet regulatory agencies are also subject to provisions which affect their relationship with other regulatory agencies. These are primarily co-ordination provisions introduced to reduce the externalities associated with fragmentation of regulatory activities and overlap of regulatory competences. The proposed study seeks to improve our understanding of inter-agency relations in three ways. First, it develops a new measurement instrument to capture variation in co-ordination density. Second, using this instrument, it maps the variation in the density of co-ordination between agencies in the areas of economic and social regulation in OECD countries. Third, it addresses the question how we can account for the variation in co-ordination density within and across countries, taking into account such factors as the degree of overlap of competences, the national administrative system, and the regulatory regime.
