Innovation and the State: Finance, Regulation, and Justice

From self-driving cars to subprime mortgage-backed securities, innovation carries both risk and opportunity. It also throws up profound regulatory challenges. As it evolves, innovation continually undermines, circumvents and sidelines regulatory structures designed to accommodate it. Here, Cristie Ford investigates the relationships between contemporary regulatory approaches and private sector innovation, and considers the implications of both for broader social welfare priorities including equality and voice.

Regulation is at the leading edge of politics and policy in ways not yet fully grasped. Seemingly innocuous regulatory design choices have clear and profound practical ramifications for many of our most cherished social commitments. Innovation is a complex phenomenon that needs to be understood not only in technical terms, but also in human ones. Ford argues for a fresh approach to regulation that recognises innovation for the regulatory challenge it is, and that binds our social values and our regulatory tools ever more tightly together.