Technology, Regulation, and Capture


Regulatory capture is a term that is often thrown around casually in political discourse as a critique of federal agencies and policy outcomes. In this line of research, I explore:

  • how we can identify and define regulatory capture,

  • how the relationships and behaviors of policy professionals might facilitate or prevent capture, and

  • whether proposed policy solutions will address the fundamental sources of capture.

Publications

Article: Regulatory Capture’s Third Face of Power (Socio-Economic Review)
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The term ‘regulatory capture’ is frequently invoked to describe dysfunctional government institutions. In its casual use, it refers to a phenomenon in which regulations benefit regulated industries, rather than public interests. However, as an analytical concept, social scientists have struggled to empirically identify and define the processes in which capture emerges and sustains. In this article, I outline a cultural framework for regulatory capture by linking cultural sociology and the faces of power to existing capture theory. Through an ethnographic case study of digital trade provisions in international trade agreements, I show how capture occurs through the construction and manipulation of ‘public interests’. I trace how capture (a) emerges when industry lobbyists extend existing schemas of a policy network into new frames and (b) is institutionalized into regulatory agencies when policymakers adopt and enact these frames into knowledge production and law. Thus, capture appears through a veneer of consensus, which suppresses alternative interests and policy outcomes.

  • Winner, 2023 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship for a Paper by a Graduate Student, ASA Political Sociology Section

  • Winner, 2023 James D. Thompson Award for Best Graduate Student Paper, ASA Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work

Op-Ed: Has Big Tech Captured U.S. Trade Policy?
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In this op-ed, I propose a litmus test for diagnosing regulatory capture, discuss how tech interests previously captured USTR, and offer an assessment of the Biden Administration’s record in the context of negotiations on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

Coverage

Article: How the Biden Administration Took the Pen Away From Facebook, Google, and Amazon (New York Times Opinion)
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This opinion piece by Farah Stockman in the New York Times cites my research article “Regulatory Capture’s Third Face of Power” in Socio-Economic Review.

Article: Big Tech Lobbyists Explain How They Took Over Washington (The American Prospect)
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This article by David Dayen in The American Prospect summarizes my research article “Regulatory Capture’s Third Face of Power” in Socio-Economic Review.

Report: Rigging Digital Trade Rules to Block Antitrust Regulation (Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren)
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This report cites my article, “Regulatory Capture’s Third Face of Power” and uses similar data (emails obtained through FOIA request) to assess the extent of tech lobbying in USTR in the Biden Administration.

Report: Confronting Tech Power (AI Now Institute)
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This report cites my article, “Regulatory Capture’s Third Face of Power.”