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The Theory of Economic Regulation (1971)
| Venue: | The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science |
| Citations: | 1101 - 1 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Stigler71thetheory,
author = {George J. Stigler},
title = {The Theory of Economic Regulation},
journal = {The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science},
year = {1971},
pages = {3--21}
}
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Abstract
The potential usex of public resources and powers to improve the economic stuius of economic groups (such as industries and occupations) are analyzed to provide a scheme of the demand for regulation. The characteristics of the political process which allow relatively small groups to obtain such regulation is then sketched lo provide elemenls of a theory of supply of regulation. A variety of empirical evidence and illustration is also presented. W The state—the machinery and power of the state—is a potential resource or threat to every industry in the society. With its power to prohibit or compel, to take or give money, the state can and does selectively help or hurt a vast number of industries. That political juggernaut, the petroleum industry, is an immense consumer of political benefits, and simultaneously the underwriters of marine insurance have their more modest repast. The central tasks of the theory of economic regulation are to explain who will receive the
