regulatory capture
Combatting External and Internal Regulatory Capture
External and internal capture may be reduced through a more logical division of labor between Congress and agencies.
In these hyper-partisan times, one is hard-pressed...
Regulators as Validators
Special interest groups can use their influence over regulation to water down not just potential legal sanctions but also potential reputational sanctions.
What deters corporate...
The Elusiveness of Regulatory Capture
Regulatory capture is hard to pin down, its elusiveness stemming from four principal factors.
Nearly everyone sees regulatory capture – and rightly disdains it. And...
Regulatory Capture is Not “Inevitable”
“Capture” has become a self-fulfilling prophecy of economists who turn their students into sure-to-fail regulators.
A Wall Street Journal editorial asserted the “inevitability” of...
Prosecuting Corporate Criminals
Prosecutions of individual corporate criminals can, in fact, be successful—and are critical for attaining justice.
It is difficult to escape the inference that the Great...
“Why Argue With the Government When You Can Buy the Government?”: Q&A with Gary Reback
In an interview with ProMarket, antitrust lawyer Gary Reback elaborated on the difference between antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and Europe, the influence the U.S. Supreme...
Regulatory Capture, Ancient and Modern
Regulatory capture's antecedents in political thought—which date back to ancient Greece—inform the modern concept.
Until recently, the term regulatory capture seemed stale, a mid-20th century...
Political Rents and Profits in Regulated Industries
A new working paper by James Bessen from Boston University finds that much of the rise in corporate profits since 2000 was caused by political...
Making it Look Like a Struggle
For capture to be sustainable, the regulator has to find ways to be perceived as being tough on the regulated without really hurting them.
The...
Preventing Regulatory Capture
When a regulation’s benefits exceed its costs, simplicity and interdisciplinary processes are essential to reducing capture.
Regulatory capture arises when regulatory decisions advance private interests...
