REGULATION: Government rules or laws that control the activities of businesses and consumers. The motivation for regulation is that businesses are inclined to do things that are harmful to the public--actions which need to be prevented or otherwise controlled. Regulation is essentially an extension of government's authority to protect one member of society from another. It tends to take one of two forms--(1) industry regulation that's intended to prevent firms from gaining and abusing excessive market control and (2) social regulation that seeks to protect consumers for problems caused by pollution, unsafe products, and the lack of information (market failure). See also | government | government functions | public sector | public goods | regulatory policy | second estate | industry regulation | social regulation | market control | pollution | market failure | information | antitrust laws | taxes | price ceiling | price floor | regulation, capture theory | deregulation |
