Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T03:30:21.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Public Policy and Regulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

R. J. Hildreth
R. J. Hildreth*
Affiliation:
Farm Foundation
Get access

Extract

A few years ago, it was unlikely anyone would write a paper on public policy and regulation. The field was reasonably well-developed, the issues well-defined, and the consequences of policy alternatives agreed-upon. It was generally agreed that the purpose of government regulation of business was to cure competitive imperfections in the marketplace. Most scholars agreed the regulatory agencies were largely captured by the regulated interests, and there was a comfortable and cooperative relationship between the regulator and the regulated. Most of the agencies were organized on an industry-by-industry basis, i.e., Interstate Commerce Commission, Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Federal Communications Commission. The Congressional Acts creating the regulatory agencies were general statements which conferred extremely broad powers to the agencies, and provided little specific policy guidance except to tell the agency to act in the public interest.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Northeastern Agricultural Economics Council , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , October 1978 , pp. 1 - 3
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Appreciation is expressed to Walter Armbruster, Farm Foundaton; Fred Nelson, ESCS, USDA; and participants in the Workshop on Regulation and the Food Industry sponsored by ESCS, USDA and Farm Foundation for review of earlier drafts. Remaining errors of fact or logic are the author's responsibility.

References

Allewelt, William F. Jr. “Zero Tolerance with Changing Technology in the Canning Industry” in Increasing Understanding of Public Problems and Policies — 1976, Farm Foundation.Google Scholar
Nichols, Albert L., and Zeckhauser, Richard “Government Comes to the Workplace: An Assessment of OSHA” The Public Interest, Volume 49, Fall 1977.Google Scholar
Rein, Martin and White, Sheldon H. “Can Policy Research Help Policy?” The Public Interest, Volume 49, Fall 1977.Google Scholar
Shaffer, J. “Comments on the Political Economics of Instituting Federal Regulations of Economic Activity” Mimeo, Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, August 1978.Google Scholar
Schultze, Charles L. The Public Use of Private Interest The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1977.Google Scholar
Weaver, Paul H. “Regulation, Social Policy, and Class Conflict” The Public Interest, Winter 1978.Google Scholar