From Regulation to Deregulation and (Perhaps) Back: A Peculiar Continuity in the Analytical Framework

William McColloch () and Matías Vernengo
Additional contact information
William McColloch: Keene State College

No CSWP46, Centro Sraffa Working Papers from Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa"

Abstract: The rise of the regulatory state during the Gilded Age was closely associated with the development of Institutionalist ideas in American academia. In their analysis of the emergent regulatory environment, Institutionalists like John Commons opera-ted with a fundamentally marginalist theory of value and distribution. This engagement is a central explanation for the ul-timate ascendancy of neoclassical economics, and the limitations of the regulatory environment that emerged in the Progres-sive Era. The eventual rise of the Chicago School and its deregulatory ambitions did constitute a rupture, but one achieved without rejecting preceding conceptions of competition and value. The substantial compatibility of the view of markets underlying both the regulatory and deregulatory periods is stressed, casting doubt about the transformative potential of the resurgent regulatory impulse in the New Gilded Age.

Keywords: John Commons; George Stigler; Regulatory Capture; Deregulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B13 B15 B25 K20 L51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2020-12-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe, nep-law, nep-pke and nep-reg
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.centrosraffa.org/public/d319b1d0-2e37-43b5-887c-468e6c14c13a.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:sraffa:0046

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Centro Sraffa Working Papers from Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa" Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Saverio M. Fratini ().