New research in the social sciences has yielded insights with important (but, as yet, largely unrecognized) implications for the government's role in the economy. This new research holds the promise of enabling creative solutions to pressing problems. As the financial crisis unfolds and the global recession continues, the need to share these ideas beyond academia to inform policymaking and public debate has grown ever more urgent. To meet this need a group of the best cutting edge scholars in the social sciences, including Nobel Laureate Joe Stiglitz, wrote New Perspectives on Regulation to provide a broad sketch of the most promising research in their fields pertaining to regulation, identify guiding principles for policymakers, and animate these principles with concrete policy proposals, all while keeping academic language and footnotes to a minimum.
The perspectives shared in this book hold the promise of transforming the way we use government to solve problems. As America faces an era of great challenges and great possibilities, it's imperative that we use the best new ideas to overcome our problems and achieve our goals.