Overview
Regulation has traditionally been viewed as correcting failures in the market mechanism. However, scholarly work preceding the recent deregulation movement highlighted inefficiencies introduced by the regulatory process. Experts on regulation now examine both the intended and unintended consequences of government intervention. Regulatory issues requiring economic analysis arise daily in the context of legislative and rule-making activities, the enforcement of regulations, antitrust cases, and rate proceedings.

Antitrust in Regulated Industries
Analysis of economic behavior in regulated industries poses some of the most challenging problems in economics. Regulation sometimes produces incentives for anticompetitive activities that would not be undertaken by unregulated firms.

Experience
EI economists have contributed to the professional literature on regulation and regulated industries. While serving at federal agencies, they have participated in the formulation and implementation of regulatory policies. EI economists study the effects of regulations, participate in writing comments in response to proposed rule-making, and on many occasions testify concerning regulatory issues.

EI economists have analyzed matters involving regulation or deregulation in many different areas, such as:

		Telecommunications—wireline and mobile telephone services, satellite services, telecommunications equipment, electronic information services
		Mass Media—television, television program supply, cable television, cable programming, radio, magazines, newspapers
		Health Care—hospitals, provider-service organizations, physician networks, health insurance, nursing homes
		Transportation—railroads, trucking, airlines, computer reservation systems, airports, pipelines, taxicabs
		Electric Power—delivered bulk power, transmission, retail electricity
		Natural Gas and Petroleum—market-based rates, incentive regulation
		Services—insurance, postal services, real estate brokerage, computer reservation services
		Banking—banks, thrifts, automatic teller machine networks, credit cards.
		Food and Drugs—alcoholic beverages, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, fruits and vegetables
		Environment—natural resource damages, Superfund clean-ups, regulatory compliance, CAFE standards
		International Trade—dumping, countervailing duties, quotas, gray markets, services, standards
		Consumer Protection—deceptive advertising, disclosure, credit practices, product liability
		Financial Markets—program trading, intermarket regulation, off-exchange trading, insider trading