Table of Contents :
Chapter 1. Defining Our Subject
Chapter 2. The Overarching Model
Chapter 3. The Private Ordering Ideal
Chapter 4. Externalities
Chapter 5. Public (and Quasi-Public) Goods
Chapter 6. Agency Costs
Chapter 7. Market Power
Chapter 8. Information Asymmetry
Chapter 9. Cognitive Limitations and Behavioral Quirks
Conclusion: Closing Thoughts on Open Questions

Includes index.

Markets sometimes fail. But so do regulatory efforts to correct market failures. Sometimes regulations reach too far, condemning good activities as well as bad, and sometimes they don't reach far enough, allowing bad behavior to persist. In this highly instructive book, Thomas A. Lambert explains the pitfalls of both extremes while offering readers a manual of effective regulation, showing how the best regulation maximizes social welfare and minimizes social costs. Working like a physician, Lambert demonstrates how regulators should diagnose the underlying disease and identify its symptoms, potential remedies for it, and their side effects before selecting the regulation that offers the greatest net benefit. This book should be read by policymakers, students, and anyone else interested in understanding how the best regulations are crafted and why they work.