A forthcoming book, [amazon_link id=”1107036089″ target=”_blank” ]Preventing Regulatory Capture: Special Interest Influence and How to Limit It[/amazon_link] edited by Dan Carpenter and David Moss, looks very timely. The draft chapters can be downloaded free from the Tobin Project website until publication later this year.

It has become abundantly clear that lobbying by special interest groups, notably finance but others too, has probably entrenched economic and consequently political power, and contributed to the increase in inequality over recent years. The aim of the project has been to develop a “rigorous and empirical standard for diagnosing and measuring capture.” The book argues – the blurb says – that this assists in identifying ways to prevent capture. The range of case studies is wide. The chapters on finance (by James Kwak) and economics (by Luigi Zingales) look most interesting to me, but there are others on oil, mining, and radio, for example, and contributions from lawyers including Richard Posner. Well worth a look.