„Neue Spielregeln für Kapitalmärkte und Netzindustrien: Ökonomie der Regulierung”

With the current financial and economic crisis the great importance of the regulatory environment for development and stability of corporations, industries and even economies gains more evidence than before. As to what extent did the regulatory framework and its handling contribute to the emergence of the crisis? Is there need for changes of specific rules or even of the entire framework? This is especially true for the regulation of the financial sector. But also the regulatory rules for network based industries such as telecommunications or energy grids are under discussion. Thus, the area of conflict between state intervention and entrepreneurial freedom is more and more under scrutiny of business practice and management research. Regulation mainly addresses two major economic and societal issues, namely ensuring and maintaining public goods such as safety, trust or health and, on the other hand, enabling and preserving competition in particular in network industries. The present contribution offers an overview on forms and theories of regulation. Without dealing in depth with specific regulatory issues the paper aims at providing foundations for a better understanding of the sometimes superficial and heated debate on appropriate regulation. At first the two dominating regulatory issues (competition and public goods) will be addressed in some detail. Subsequently, the political economy of regulatory processes will be highlighted as well as a couple of management challenges that go along with regulatory impacts an the firm.