For the very first time, eBay Inc. participated in the European Health Forum in Gastein, Austria. The European Commission organized a session on the topic of stakeholder involvement in policymaking. Hanne Melin with the eBay Inc. Public Policy Lab, was invited as panelist to share ideas developed within the Policy Lab on regulatory innovation.
During the forum, Hanne Melin debated David Stuckler of University of Oxford, arguing for inclusiveness in policymaking. Melin reasoned that solving problems in today’s complex, connected and technology-driven markets require cooperation, which in turn demands novel regulatory models that are not strictly top-down. Stuckler, on the other hand, warned about policies and regulators being influenced by industry vested interests and so recommended delineation between private and public sectors. Melin, in turn, recommended that policymakers start experimenting with the flexible instrument of performance-based regulation, coupled with modern data analytics to provide for measurement, common understanding of output objectives and discretion in how those objectives are achieved.