NCJ Number
126881
Journal
Washington and Lee Law Review Volume: 45 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1988) Pages: 1249-1274
Date Published
1988
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This discussion of economic analyses of regulations uses the financial services industry as an example and argues that terms such as "deregulation" and "reregulation" imply a particular view of social organization, human behavior, and politics that is useful in some respects, but lacking in empirical support.
Abstract
Concepts relating to regulation rest on an image of a free market that does not reflect reality. However, this imagery is useful in that it generates a social system that allows us to achieve economic or material efficiency, an appealing goal in a commercial area such as financial services. This imagery also allows us to use economics as a comprehensive methodology for solving social problems. Nevertheless, efficiency is only one of many social goals and is not necessarily the only valid one. Finally, economics can be useful in examining other social policies, although it cannot occupy the central role that it does in analyses of efficiency. 73 footnotes