Regulatory Economics
Regulatory economics is generally an application of public choice theory to markets and market interventions.
Descriptions
This field studies the markets in the context of regulations, taxes, and other interventions by the legitimate political state or by an international order.
The most common justification for this branch of economic study is to correct market failures. There are more normative studies as well, which blur the line between regulatory economics and welfare economics.
A key concept is regulatory capture. Depending on perspective, this is either:
- a business strategy to 'get ahead' of regulations (i.e., self-regulate then campaign for government agencies to adopt those regulations) and grow strategic advantages over competitors
- a condition affecting government agencies whereby their public stewardship is subverted
Reading Notes
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, Albert O. Hirschman, 1970
Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive, William J. Baumol, 1990
The Sanctions Paradox, Daniel W. Drezner, 1999
An Economic Theory of GATT, Kyle Bagwell and Robert W. Staiger, 1999
Hospital Consolidation And Negotiated PPO Prices, Cory Capps and David Dranove, 2004
Hospital-Physician Relations: Cooperation, Competition, Or Separation?; Robert A. Berenson, Paul B. Ginsburg, and Jessica H. May; 2006
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity; William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan, and Carl J. Schramm; 2007
The Effects of the 1.03 Million Yen Ceiling in a Dynamic Labor Supply Model, Yukiko Abe, 2009
Consumers’ Perceptions and Misperceptions of Energy Costs, Hunt Allcott, 2011
Managing Manifest Diseases, But Not Health Risks, Saved PepsiCo Money Over Seven Years; John P. Caloyeras, Hangsheng Liu, Ellen Exum, Megan Broderick, and Soeren Mattke; 2014
Renegotiation Policies in Sovereign Defaults, Cristina Arellano and Yan Bai, 2014
Economic Sanctions as a Foreign Policy Tool, Michael Klein and Daniel W. Drezner, 2024
The Increasing Cost of Buying American; Matilde Bombardini, Andres Gonzalez-Lira, Bingjing Li, and Chiara Motta; 2024
The French public debt in the nineteenth century, François Velde, 2024
On the economic impacts of mortgage credit expansion policies: Evidence from help to buy; Felipe Carozzi, Christian A.L. Hilber, and Xiaolun Yu; 2024
Why Has Inflation Been Higher in Chicago Than in the U.S. Overall Recently?, Leslie McGranahan, 2025
Britain’s Debt Restructuring, 1717-22, François Velde, 2025
The Politics of Small Business Owners; Neil Malhotra, Yotam Margalit, and Saikun Shi; 2025
What One Mineral Reveals About the U.S.-China Trade War, Miles Kellerman, 2025
The Sanctions Paradox in 2025, Daniel W. Drezner, 2025
Los Angeles Shows That the Private Sector Can Develop Affordable Housing, Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, 2025
How to dismantle a reserve currency, Daniel McDowell, 2025
The Political Power of Firms, Matilde Bombardini and Francesco Trebbi, 2025
Do Economic Warfare and Sanctions Work? Three Centuries of Evidence, Stephen Broadberry and Mark Harrison, 2025
The Origins and Evolution of Occupational Licensing in the United States; Nicholas A. Carollo, Jason F. Hicks, Andrew Karch, and Morris M. Kleiner; 2025