Derek Bonett is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, where he writes on a range of regulatory issues, with a particular emphasis on financial markets and commercial banking. He studied American politics and history at the University of California, Berkeley before going on to receive his PhD in Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, with a subfield emphasis in American political economy. His dissertation explores the differing political incentives which state vs. federal commercial bank regulatory agencies have in enforcing federal prudential statutes. While at UC San Diego, he also worked extensively on theoretically and statistically modeling the relationship between executive agencies and Congress.