TY  - BOOK
AU  - Macher, Jeffrey T.
AU  - Mayo,  John W.
AU  - Nickerson, Jack A.
TI  - Regulator heterogeneity and endogenous efforts to close the information asymmetry gap
SN  - 00222186
AV  - HB73 JOU 
PY  - 2011///
CY  - Chicago
PB  - University of Chicago Press
KW  - Administrative agencies
KW  - Advertising restrictions
KW  - Commercial regulation
KW  - Drug design
KW  - Drug regulation
KW  - Economic regulation
KW  - Industrial regulation
KW  - Information asymmetry
KW  - Manufactured products
KW  - Manufacturing processes
N2  - The now standard principal-agent model of regulator-firm interactions typically assumes the presence of a single regulator and an exogenously determined information asymmetry between the principal and the agent. In this paper we draw upon a unique data set of regulatory inspections conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore the consistency of these assumptions with the actual practice of regulators. We find that the canonical assumptions of the agency paradigm are strained by, if not altogether inconsistent with, the key practical realities of regulation by the FDA. Our analysis uncovers several dimensions along which regulators actively and endogenously seek to close the information asymmetry gap. We also find considerable regulator heterogeneity, which in turn depends in part upon the specific training and experience of individual regulators
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1086/658484
ER  -