Brief book review – The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better Or Worse

Benjamin van Rooij and Adam Fine, 2021, Yale University Press, 384 pages Don’t think that The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better Or Worse is yet another popular science book that simply rides on the wave caused by Nudge. It is not. Or actually, it is, but not in the way … Continue reading Brief book review – The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better Or Worse

Brief book review – Nudge: The Final Edition

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, 2021, Yale University Press, 384 pages There will be few regulators who have not heard of the groundbreaking book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, published in 2008 by Professors Richard Thaler (University of Chicago) and Cass Sunstein (Harvard University). The authors have joined forces once more in … Continue reading Brief book review – Nudge: The Final Edition

Brief book review – Cambridge Handbook of Compliance

Benjamin van Rooij and Daniel Sokol (Eds), (2021), Cambridge University Press, 1,019 pages What do we know and what don’t we know about compliance (and non-compliance)? Those questions sum up the 69 chapters of the recent Cambridge Handbook of Compliance. The book is edited by Professor Benjamin van Rooij (University of Amsterdam) and Professor Daniel … Continue reading Brief book review – Cambridge Handbook of Compliance

Brief book review – Algorithmic Regulation

Karen Yeung and Martin Lodge (Eds), (2019), Oxford University Press, 271 pages The book Algorithmic Regulation is a collection of 11 very accessible essays on the role of algorithms and big data on regulatory governance. The book is edited by Professor Karen Yeung (Birmingham Law School), one of the leading scholars in regulation and technology, … Continue reading Brief book review – Algorithmic Regulation

The insidious regulatory challenges of the 21st Century

In my role as Chair in Regulatory Practice, I am often asked what I think are the biggest challenges for regulators in the critical decades that lie ahead. The expectation is that I will then discuss challenges such as disruptive technology, climate change, or even the next pandemic. These are important, but I do not … Continue reading The insidious regulatory challenges of the 21st Century

Politically contentious issues in regulation

How much politics goes into the development, implementation, evaluation, and reform of regulation? Over the last few weeks, I have begun writing a short series of blog posts that map how scholars of public administration in general and regulatory scholars in particular have theorized the politics of regulation. In this final blog post in this … Continue reading Politically contentious issues in regulation

The politics of regulation: Four dominant perspectives

How much politics goes into the development, implementation, evaluation, and reform of regulation? Over the next few weeks, I will write a short series of blog posts that map how scholars of public administration in general and regulatory scholars in particular have theorized the politics of regulation. In this blog post, I will look at … Continue reading The politics of regulation: Four dominant perspectives

The Politics of Regulation: Mapping a Half-Century of Debates (1970-2020)

How much politics goes into the development, implementation, evaluation, and reform of regulation? This question has been at the forefront of regulatory scholarship for over five decades [1-4]. Aim of this series Over the next few weeks, I will write a short series of blog posts that map how scholars of public administration in general … Continue reading The Politics of Regulation: Mapping a Half-Century of Debates (1970-2020)

The role of risk-based thinking in regulatory stewardship

This is a transcript of a key-note lecture in the "Driving Risk-Based Regulation" conference, presented on 24 February 2021. The slides to the presentation are available at the end of the transcript (below). Kia ora. It is my pleasure to kick off today's sessions in this excellent online conference. Since 2013, New Zealand's regulatory agencies … Continue reading The role of risk-based thinking in regulatory stewardship