Government and Markets: Toward a New Theory of Regulation
A 2008 Tobin Project Conference at White Oak
What are the best ways to structure
economic regulation in an age of rapid technological change, fraying social
safety nets, globalization, and the reemergence of concentrated corporate
power?
The Tobin Project seeks to launch an ongoing conversation among leading scholars and lawmakers that is framed by this important and timely question. New thinking is urgently needed on the appropriate regulatory relationships between government and business and, by extension, the most constructive roles that markets and the state can play in our society. Over the long term, our aspiration is to inform legislative decision-making in the broad domain of economic regulation, encouraging the development of new frameworks that can meet the challenges of maintaining a vibrant market economy that serves the public interest.
To inaugurate this interchange, we are convening an interdisciplinary conference February 1-3, 2008, entitled “Government and Markets: Toward a New Theory of Regulation.” Involving prominent senior academics and promising younger scholars, this conference will have two primary goals:
- assessing the strengths and weaknesses of reigning approaches to regulation and to the economic role of the state, and
- envisioning appropriate regulatory arrangements for the new century.
The conference will bring together a remarkable array of academic talent. Our hope is that it will inject energy and direction into scholarly engagement with economic regulation in the United States, refocusing academic research agendas on both pressing policy dilemmas and big questions about the role and capacity of government. That ambition leads us to invite individuals from all career phases; in part, we want to initiate a new academic community. Such a process will take time, as did the Chicago and Virginia Schools’ rise to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. But in light of the daunting policy challenges confronting the nation, and the pervasive skepticism about the effective exercise of governmental power, it is imperative that we begin to invest in the effort.
Point of Departure
Over the last fifty years, the prevailing assumptions about the role, power, and limitations of American government have undergone a dramatic transformation, at first in the academic worlds of economic and political theory, and then in the broader polity.
© 2008 Tobin Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
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