Eric Rasmusen's Notes for a Book on Regulation (August 28, 2011)

     I am writing a book on regulation to be used for my undergraduate economics class and read by the general public. These are draft chapters, still ragged and just notes in parts.

• Cover, Preface, and Table of Contents

• 1. Markets

  1. Introduction
  2. Surplus Maximization
  3. Surplus from a Single Transaction
  4. Surplus in an Entire Market
  5. The Rectangle-and-Triangle Method of Measuring Surplus and the Example of Rent Control
  6. Surplus Analysis of a Tax
  7. Conclusion: Markets Usually Work

• 2. Market failure

  1. Introduction
  2. Weak Property Rights and Contract Enforcement
  3. Monopoly and Market Power
  4. Poor Information
  5. Externalities (Spillovers)
  6. Conclusion: Market Failure and the Solutions

• 3. Government failure

  1. Government as a Solution to Market Failure
  2. Government Failure. Bad Objectives
  3. Government Failure. Poor Performance
  4. Administrative Law
  5. An Example. Disclosure of College Student Grades
  6. How to Think about Government

• 4. Time, Life and Taxes

  1. Discounting
  2. What Is the Value of a Human Life?
  3. The Small-Risk Approach to Valuing Life
  4. The Lifetime Wealth Approach to Valuing a Human Life
  5. Taxes

• 5. Monopoly

  1. Choosing Price and Output to Maximize Profits
  2. Anti-Trust Law
  3. Price Fixing
  4. Oligopoly and the Cournot Model
  5. Are Triangle Losses Important?

• 6. Monopolization

  1. Mergers
  2. Price Discrimination
  3. Predatory Pricing
  4. Exclusive Dealing
  5. Tying and Bundling

• 7. Public utilities

  1. Introduction
  2. Solutions to Natural Monopoly
  3. Average-Cost Pricing
  4. The 2010 NIPSCO Rate Case
  5. Government Failure. Industries that Pretend to be Natural Monopolies or that Shouldn't Survive
  6. Ramsey Pricing

• 8. Telecom

  1. Introduction
  2. Allocating the Spectrum
  3. Telephones. The Interconnection Problem.
  4. Cable TV and Internet Service
  5. Net Neutrality

• 9. Information

  2. Market Failure Due to Poor Information
  3. Irrationality
  4. Market Solutions. Testing and Reputation
  5. Ways to Regulate

• 10. Banking

  1. Introduction
  2. How Did the Crisis Come About?
  3. Subprime Mortgage-Backed Securities
  4. Foreclosures

• 11. Pollution

  1. Externalities
  2. Pollution Taxes
  3. The Coase Theorem
  4. Pollution over Time
  5. Global Warming

• 12. Conservation

  1. Introduction
  2. Fish
  3. Hetch Hetchy
  4. Recycling
  5. Oil

• Conclusion
• References and Name Index
• Index