INDUSTRY REGULATION: Government regulation of an entire industry. The most common industry regulation has been in airline, railroad, trucking, banking, and television broadcasting. The objective of industry regulation is for a regulatory agency to keep a close eye on an industry's prices and product to ensure that they don't start a monopoly and take advantage of consumers. Unfortunately more than a few of the regulatory agencies have been prone to work too closely with those they regulate, in large part because regulators move freely between industry and agency. The agency often ends up working for the industry and running what is effectively a legal monopoly that raises prices, prevents competition, and gouges consumers. See also | regulation | government | monopoly | competition | market control | capture theory of regulation | fourth rule of competition | deregulation |
