Industry regulation and the performance of the American economy

by Paul W. MacAvoy

Regulation reached its zenith in the 1960s. The 1980s was the decade of deregulation. The 1990s afford us an important opportunity to assess what is left of regulation and its impact on the economy. And who better to do this than Paul W. MacAvoy, one of America's most respected experts on the economics of industry? Beginning with the Act to Regulate Commerce of 1887, Professor MacAvoy traces the rise of regulation over one hundred years to its sharp curtailment in the. 1980s. Originally invoked as a means of controlling the prices set by monopolies, this policy tool found extended use in the last quarter-century to do everything from keeping down energy prices to protecting the health and safety of workers and the quality of the environment. In most cases regulation has been founded on the best of intentions, but as the deregulation of the airline, trucking, and railroad industries in the 1980s made clear there are other ways of. Achieving social objectives. It is thus useful to ask wh