Regulation without external enforcement has always been a focal point for explorations into the relationship between morality and economic behavior.  Are self-regulatory arrangements viable? Are they stable? What are the factors and conditions that determine their stability and viability? Using these questions as a vehicle, the article explores the functional anatomy of self-regulation.

Federal regulations are mandated by the executive branch of the federal government and are used to implement, in some cases to finely tune, laws from Congress. They reach most aspects of American life and touch every single individual in some way. The U.S. federal government creates an average of about 4,000 final regulations each year with about 500–700 reviewed by the White House (the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs).

In light of the recent financial crisis, regulators and shareholders are pursuing more activism on firms' boards. The Securities and Exchange Commission for instance, recently issued proposals that include rules that would allow shareholders to include independent director nominees on a public company's proxy materials. This paper addresses the changes…

Veronique de Rugy discusses the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan program.

This public interest comment provides suggestions to the SBA in response to the Regulatory Review and Reform Initiative, which is designed to identify and address existing federal regulations that should be revised because they are ineffective, duplicative, or out of date.

Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Houman B. Shadab delivered this testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Shadab discusses the academic law and economic literature regarding explanations for increased compensation among public company executives and other empirical findings relevant to potential conflicts of interest among executive compensation consultants.

Jerry Ellig presents before the Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security in the Visiting Speakers Program about regulation in high reliability organizations, such as telecommunications, airport security and finance.