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The Structure of Regulatory Competition

The Structure of Regulatory Competition

Author: Dale D. Murphy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199216512
Published In: September 2006
Format: Paperback , 338 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Interdisciplinary; incorporating political science, economics, legal, and business studies
Historical narratives on the role of powerful firms in shaping public policies, for example on the origins of offshore banking
Sheds new empirical light on the heated controversy over corporate social responsibility

In order to understand international economic regulations, it is essential to understand the variation in competing corporations' interests. Political science theories have neglected the role of individual firms as causal actors. Theories of institutions have neglected to examine the creation of business law. Economic theories have neglected to apply concepts of asset specificity to social regulations in competitive industries. This book aims to fill these voids with a company-based explanation. Its theoretical findings open a 'black box' in the literature on international political economy and elucidate a source of regulatory differences and similarities.

Counter-intuitive case studies reveal how business and governments actually interact. They also contribute to both sides of current debates over corporate social responsibility. They examine diverse topics including offshore finance, flags-of-convenience, CFC production, capital requirements, the importation and sale of 'dolphin-lethal' tuna, and the advertising of infant formulae.

By exploring powerful corporations' investment profiles and regulatory strategies, this book explains why globalization sometimes results in a 'race to the bottom', sometimes in higher common regulations, and sometimes in regulations that differ between countries. Uniquely, it then explains which regulatory outcome is likely to occur under specified conditions. The explanation incorporates economics, political science, studies of regulatory capture, and examinations of transaction costs, firms' regulatory strategies, and the roles international institutions.

Readership: Academics and graduate students in political science, law, business, and economics, some MBA students, also practitioners, business associations, policy advocates, policy critics and government or NGO officials.

I Introduction
1: The Puzzle and an Explanation
II Lower Common Denominator
2: Shipping Flags-of-convenience
3: Offshore Finance
III Higher Common Denominator
4: Montreal Protocol on Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
5: Basle Accord on Capital Adequacy
IV Heterogeneity
6: Mexican Tuna-dolphin
7: Infant Formula Marketing in the USA
V Conclusion
8: Evidence and Implications

Dale D. Murphy, Assistant Professor, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Review(s) from previous edition

" The Structure of Regulatory Competition indicates how important the strategies of large corporations are for global and national regulatory policy. Norms and ideas sometimes play a role, but to explain outcomes, Dale Murphy reminds us, we have to understand material interests - Robert O. Keohane, James B. Duke Professor of Political Science, Duke University

"A first-rate contribution to both research and theory on how economic interests affect regulatory policy-making in a global economy. Murphy makes a persuasive case for the critical role played by industry structure in shaping patterns of both international and domestic regulation. This is an important book whose original analysis of the dynamics of both the 'Delaware' and 'California' effects deserves to be widely discussed and debated." - David Vogel, Haas School of Business, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

"This book represents a major contribution to debates over globalization. Some argue that integration spawns competitions in regulatory laxity. Others maintain that integration encourages upward regulatory harmonization. Murphy transcends this debate, identifying conditions that explain when regulations will drop toward a lowest common denominator, when regulations will converge upward, and when regulatory differences will persist. Murphy presents meticulously researched cases on regulations governing environmental performance, shipping registration and flags-of-convenience, labor standards, and captial adequacy standards. These case studies are theoretically insightful and empirically rich fables of globalization, complete with morals. Essential reading for an era when international trade conflicts center on domestic regulatory differences." - Kenneth A. Oye, Massachusetts Institute of Technology