regelfactor

Regelfaktor is a metric used to quantify the influence of a rule or regulation on the behavior of a system. It expresses how much a rule alters outcomes relative to a baseline where the rule is absent. The term is used in regulatory engineering, risk assessment, and policy modeling to compare scenarios.

Calculation and interpretation: The regelfaktor is usually derived by comparing a performance measure under a rule-enabled scenario with a reference scenario without the rule. It is often expressed as a ratio, difference, or weighted score. Depending on the context, it can be unitless or carry units tied to the measured outcome, such as emissions, cost, or time.

Applications: In environmental planning, it helps evaluate the stringency and expected effects of rules on land use, emissions, or resource use. In finance and compliance, it summarizes the expected impact of regulatory capital, reporting, or conduct rules on costs and risk. In software governance, it can quantify the enforcement of code-quality, privacy, or data-protection rules within automated pipelines.

Limitations and interpretation: The regelfaktor depends on model structure, data quality, and baseline choices. It may oversimplify complex interactions among regulations, behaviors, and external conditions. Analysts typically accompany it with sensitivity analyses and scenario testing to assess robustness.

See also: regulatory impact assessment, compliance cost, policy modeling, constraint coefficient.