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REGULATION AND THE THEORY OF AGENCY 1
Author(s) -
Mitnick Barry M.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1982.tb00448.x
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , principal–agent problem , relation (database) , positive economics , sociology , economics , law and economics , political science , management , social science , computer science , corporate governance , database
The major arguments of this paper are that there is a need for an integrating framework for the study of regulation, including the design of regulatory institutions, and that the theory of agency may provide such a framework. The paper provides a brief overview of this approach. The theory of agency is a general theory of social relationships of “acting for” that is now under development in several disciplines, particularly economics and accounting. Regulation is seen as a generic relation observed widely in social behavior, and as a particular type of agency relationship. The problems of agency relations–e.g., the problems of principals in controlling agents and of agents in acting according to the principals' desires–have their counterparts in regulation.