This paper develops a framework for systematically evaluating the performance of regulations and regulatory policies. Offering an accessible account of the fundamentals of evaluation, the paper explains the need for indicators to measure relevant outcomes of concern and research designs to support inferences about the extent to which a regulation or regulatory policy under evaluation has actually caused any change in the measured outcomes. Indicators depend on the specific problems of concern to policymakers as well as on data availability, but the best indicators will generally be those that measure the ultimate problem the regulation or policy was intended to solve. In addition, research designs should seek to emulate the structure of laboratory experiments in order to permit valid causal inferences about the impacts of a regulation or policy under review. The paper discusses strategies for controlling confounders and attributing broad economic effects to regulation.