"Preventing Capture" Roundtable at Duke

After two successful events with policymakers and think tank scholars in Washington, D.C., the Tobin Project took the newly published volume Preventing Regulatory Capture back to the academic sphere for an event at Duke University. The Rethinking Regulation program at Duke's Kenan Center for Ethics, led by Ed Balleisen, hosted a successful roundtable discussion on the book on Thursday, February 20th.

The event brought together Tobin Project founder and President David Moss, who edited the book along with Professor Daniel Carpenter, with two policymakers: Congressman David Price (D-NC) and Joseph Smith, former North Carolina Commissioner of Banks and current Monitor of the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. This produced a productive discussion on regulatory capture from the panelists’ three very different viewpoints – academic, legislative, and administrative.

Drawing on both his academic and legislative experience, Rep. Price welcomed the nuanced understanding of capture presented in the volume and its focus on remedies. He agreed that it can be difficult to rigorously prove that regulatory capture has occurred, but suggested that it is still important to hold regulators accountable for behavior that runs counter to the public interest, regardless of the influence behind it.

Joseph Smith talked about the challenges of avoiding regulatory capture as a banking commissioner and mortgage regulator. He stressed that it was very important to remain independent from industry, but that to be an effective regulator, he also had to gain the respect and cooperation of bankers, consumers, civil society groups, and other government officials.

To learn more about Preventing Regulatory Capture, visit the book page or purchase the book. In addition, William Novak’s chapter from the book, which covers the history of the idea of regulatory capture in the United States and the effects of this idea on public policy, is now available for free download.

More information on the event »

Read William Novak's chapter from the volume »