A timely if somewhat padded reprise of the basics of economic
regulation - drawing upon Breyer's experience as an architect of
airline deregulation in the late 1970s. A regulatory scheme, he
maintains, must "match" the type of regulation it employs with the
free-market defect it seeks to cure. Setting emission standards for
pollution control, for example, will not be as successful as
government-sold "rights" to pollute - because the former entails
extraordinary administrative costs, discourages voluntary
compliance, and does not distinguish between firms which can abate
pollution cheaply and those which cannot. ICC regulation of prices
and entry in the trucking industry is another mismatch: such
controls, appropriate for natural monopolies like electricity or
telecommunications, merely muck up a structurally competitive
industry like trucking. Correspondingly, Breyer dismisses as
tangential such "generic" attempts at regulatory reform as the
legislative veto or increased consumer-input in agency
decision-making. Rather, reform must proceed case by case, industry
by industry - guided by consistently applied economic analysis, not
by political pressures or institutional concepts. Breyer hasn't
succumbed to deregulation fever altogether: he admits, for
instance, the uncertain strength of the case for deregulation of
the long-distance telephone industry. But he is full of awe at the
efficiency of the free market; and citing the high prices, lessened
competition, and occasional shortages which result from misguided
regulation, he emphatically places the burden of proof on those who
would tinker with the workings of laissez-faire. Approximately half
the book is thesis - the principles of regulation; half, an
industry-by-industry rundown (most interesting, by far, as regards
the airlines). And its very compendiousness is a burden. But it
does provide a report on the thinking and activity in the
deregulation movement - as regards everything from seat belts to
saccharin. (Kirkus Reviews)
This book will become the bible of regulatory reform. No broad,
authoritative treatment of the subject has been available for many
years except for Alfred Kahn's "Economics of Regulation" (197O).
And Stephen Breyer's book is not merely a utilitarian analysis or a
legal discussion of procedures; it employs the widest possible
perspective to survey the full implications of government
regulation economic, legal, administrative, political while
addressing the complex problems of administering regulatory
agencies.
Only a scholar with Judge Breyer's practical experience as chief
counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee could have accomplished
this task. He develops an ingenious original system for classifying
regulatory activities according to the kinds of problems that have
called for, or have seemed to call for, regulation; he then
examines how well or poorly various regulatory regimes remedy these
market defects. This enables him to organize an enormous amount of
material in a coherent way, and to make significant and useful
generalizations about real-world problems.
Among the regulatory areas he considers are health and safety;
environmental pollution, trucking, airlines, natural gas, public
utilities, and telecommunications. He further gives attention to
related topics such as cost-of-service ratemaking, safety
standards, antitrust, and property rights. Clearly this is a book
whose time is here a veritable how-to-do-it book for administration
deregulators, legislators, and the judiciary; and because it is
comprehensive and superbly organized, with a wealth of highly
detailed examples, it is practical for use in law schools and in
courses on economics and political science.
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