Taming the Corporation

Virtually all enterprises are regulated. Regulation is crucial not only to economic success but also to protecting consumer, worker, environmental, and other interests. Yet it is often considered a tiresome interference with entrepreneurial activity. This negative vision is unhelpful in addressing business and other needs for productive forms of regulation.

Taming the Corporation offers an alternative, positive, vision of regulation. It stresses the role of good regulation in allowing businesses to flourish, serve markets effectively, and respect broader interests. This perspective paves the way for more productive regulatory designs. It looks at the characteristics of good regulation and provides businesses, consumers, and citizens with the arguments that will enable them to push for regulatory controls that serve their needs. Understandings of regulation are served by looking at the potentially positive roles of control strategies ranging from 'command laws' to 'nudges'. This book not only discusses regulatory theory but also uses numerous case examples to illustrate real life challenges and address three key regulatory challenges in the modern world: regulating for sustainability, addressing global warming, and controlling digital platforms.

About the Author:
Robert Baldwin, Professor of Law Emeritus and Director of the Executive Education Course on Regulation, London School of Economics and Political Science, Martin Cave, Chair of Ofgem and a visiting professor, London School of Economics and Political Science

Robert Baldwin is a Professor of Law Emeritus at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of LSE's Executive Education Course on Regulation. He has acted as a consultant to numerous private and public bodies, including the Health and Safety Executive, the European Commission, Ofsted, Defra, and HM Treasury. His publications on regulation are extensive and his books include: Understanding Regulation (Oxford University Press, Second Edition 2011, with Martin Cave and Martin Lodge); The Oxford Handbook of Regulation (Oxford University Press 2010, edited with Martin Cave and Martin Lodge), and The Government of Risk (Oxford University Press 2001, with Christopher Hood and Henry Rothstein).

Martin Cave is an economist specialising in competition law and the regulation of network industries, including communications, energy, and transport. He is Chair of Ofgem, the UK energy regulator. He was an inquiry chair at the UK Competition and Markets Authority, having previously been a deputy chair at the UK Competition Commission. He is currently a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. He has written a number of books and papers on regulation, including Understanding Regulation (Oxford University Press, 2011 with Robert Baldwin and Martin Lodge) and The Oxford Handbook of Regulation (Oxford University Press 2010, edited with Martin Cave and Martin Lodge). He has advised governments and regulators in a number of sectors in Australia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand, the UK, and elsewhere.