Virtually all industries and individual corporations in the United States today are subject to some regulations or regulatory agency of the federal, state, or local government. This has not always been so; only in the last 50 years has government regulatory activity escalated to touch every nook and cranny of business activity. While any list of regulated industries would be incomplete – new ones are constantly on the horizon – the following is impressive because of its inclusiveness: drugs, airlines, railroads, trucking, telecommunications, banking, utilities, medicine, automobiles, toys, farming, construction, and accounting. The objective of this book is not to offer a complete description and rationale of individual regulations and regulatory agencies, but, rather, to describe the theory of regulation and to examine a few of the more important regulatory areas and topics in terms of their impact on business decisions. While most of the research in the area of regulation is empirical and follows a cost/benefit methodology, the Companion will begin with an explanation of the overall rationale for regulation. This is not an area without controversy and the Companion will try to capture more than a single point of view. The individual essays in the Companion will include approximately 25 newly-comissioned essays on selected topics in either the area of regulation in general or antitrust regulations specifically. Antitrust regulation is the single area separated out because of its economic impact and because a great deal of the specific regulations are related to antitrust considerations.
