Competition: for a space at the 2008 Government & Markets conference
Government & Markets: Toward a New Theory of Regulation
A Tobin Project conference at White Oak, February 1-3, 2008
Application for Graduate Students
The Tobin Project is convening an interdisciplinary conference—Government & Markets: Toward a New Theory of Regulation—for leading scholars and policymakers framed by this important and timely question: What are the best ways to structure economic regulation in an age of rapid technological change, fraying social safety nets, intensifying global competition, and the reemergence of concentrated corporate power? One of our main goals for the conference is to stimulate new thinking on the economic role of the state that will help meet 21st-century challenges in maintaining a vibrant market economy that truly serves the public interest. We also see the conference as an opportunity to help foster a new interdisciplinary academic community focused on questions about the role of government and the appropriate purposes and most effective mechanisms of economic regulation. Toward that end, we have reserved a small number of spaces at the conference for a handful of outstanding graduate students. We hope to stimulate interest among them in the theoretical and empirical foundations of regulation and its policy applications and to provide encouragement for this kind of research in the early stages of their academic careers. The Government & Markets conference will be focused on discussion and debate rather than presentations. Several sessions will be anchored by pre-circulated papers written especially for this meeting; others will seek to identify big issues that require additional research, or areas of scholarly consensus that have had insufficient impact on public debate or policy making. The conference will take place at the White Oak Conference Center in Florida from February 1–3, 2008. The Tobin Project will cover participants’ expenses, thanks to generous financial support from the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
If you are a graduate student interested in applying for a space at the 2008 Government & Markets conference, we invite you to submit the following application materials to conference@tobinproject.org by November 19, 2007:
• A one-page statement of your interest and intellectual engagement in issues related to economic regulation and/or the economic role of the state
• Your curriculum vitae
• The names of two references, their institutions, contact phone numbers and email addresses, and the capacities in which you have known them.
• One writing sample (e.g., a thesis prospectus or draft dissertation chapter)
• Your responses to the following questions:
PART I: Please respond very briefly (in just a few words or a sentence) to the following:
1) What are the two or three most pressing arenas requiring new or revised forms of regulation in the United States today?
2) What is an especially instructive instance of effective regulatory action by a government (federal, state, or local) over the past century?
3) What is an especially instructive instance of ineffective regulatory action by a government (federal, state, or local) over the past century?
4) a: Do you see contemporary political debate in the United States as sufficiently incorporating key research findings about regulatory policy from your discipline? (yes/no)
b: If not, what one or two research findings would you most want elected officials and regulators to know about?
5) a: Is there a dominant theory of regulation in the U.S. today? (yes/no)
b: If so, what is it called?
c: Is it an adequate guide to the formulation and implementation of regulatory policy? (yes/no)
PART II: In addition, we would ask that you reflect on the following question in one or two paragraphs:
6) How would you describe the kinds of broad public purposes that might best motivate or justify regulation?
More information about the conference is available on the Tobin Project’s website (www.tobinproject.org/conference), where the application materials and instructions can also be found. Please contact conference@tobinproject.org with any questions. Applicants will be notified of selection decisions by the end of December.
Discussion Papers:
Assessing Public Choice Theory
A conversation with Ken Arrow
Professor Emeritus of Economics, Stanford University
The Prospects for Economic ‘Self-Regulation’ in the United States: An Historical View from the Early Twenty-First Century
Edward Balleisen
Associate Professor of History, Duke University
Law, Policy, and Cooperation
Yochai Benkler
Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard University
Confidence Games: How Does Regulation Constitute Markets?
Daniel Carpenter
Professor of Government, Harvard University
Markets in the Shadow of the State: An Appraisal of Deregulation and Implications for Future Research
Marc Eisner
Professor of Government, Wesleyan University
The Role of Social Protection in the De-Regulation of Industries: The Case of the European Union Since the Single Market
Neil Fligstein
Class of 1939 Chancellor’s Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Deregulation Theories in A Litigious Society Since the 1970s: Antitrust and Tort
Tony Freyer
University Research Professor of History and Law, University of Alabama
From “State Interference” to the “Return to the Market”: The Rhetoric of Economic Regulation from the Old Gilded Age to the New
Mary Furner
Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Using Cost-Benefit Analysis to Guide Regulatory Decision-Making: Evidence from Hazardous Waste Sites and the Superfund Program
Michael Greenstone
3M Professor of Environmental Economics, MIT
Democracy and Economy: The Legislative Foundations of Regulation in America
William Novak
Associate Professor of History, University of Chicago
Regulating US Corporate Governance: Energized Government, Attenuated Politics
Mary O’Sullivan
Associate Professor of Management, University of Pennsylvania
Market Failure v. Government Failure: Principles of Regulation
Joseph Stiglitz
University Professor, Columbia University
Redesigning Regulation: A Case Study from the Consumer Credit Market
Elizabeth Warren
Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law, Harvard University
Public Choice in Perspective: It May Not Be the Dismal Science of Politics After All
Donald Wittman
Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Cruz