The Regulation of Public Goods

Abstract

The paper examines the complex ways in which public goods are regulated. The provision and distribution of public goods is deeply affected by the degree of excludability of those goods and the regulatory context of that excludability. Using a decentered conception of regulation, the paper shows through various examples how state and non-state actors regulate each other's capacities to provide, access, and distribute public goods. The paper includes a discussion of the regulation of knowledge by the rules of intellectual property.