Regulation magazine is sporting a new editorial lineup, a new look, and a new focus. The first issue of volume 22 offers an updated design and a renewed focus on the implications of the role of government in a market economy.

First published in 1977, Regulation assesses the effects of government regulation on individuals and businesses and analyzes alternative ways of dealing with the problems that regulation is intended to address. Peter VanDoren, formerly Cato’s assistant director of environmental studies, has been named the new editor of the magazine. The new managing editor is Thomas E. Anger, who brings to Regulation extensive experience in business as well as publishing.

“Regulation will continue to be written for a wide audience, including policymakers and analysts in and outside Washington, as well as entrepreneurs and executives in the private sector,” according to William A. Niskanen, Cato’s chairman and head of Regulation’s new editorial board. “The new look signals the changes in both management and focus.”

A number of distinguished scholars have joined Regulation’s editorial board: David Bradford, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School; William A. Fischel, professor of economics at Dartmouth College; James J. Heckman, professor of economics at the University of Chicago; George L. Priest, professor of law and economics at Yale Law School; V. Kerry Smith, professor of environmental economics at Duke University; Pablo T. Spiller, professor of international business at the University of California; and Richard Wilson, professor of physics at Harvard University.

Among the featured articles in the new issue is “Runs on Banks and the Lessons of the Great Depression” by Charles Calomiris of Columbia Business School. He argues that “the standard interpretation of banking collapse and government intervention during the Depression needs fundamental revision,” and that there is a “need to reevaluate views of the inherent instability of banking systems and the value of deposit insurance.” In “Putting the ‘Law’ Back into Environment Law,” David Schoenbrod of New York Law School suggests “a realistic way to control modern pollution according to the spirit … of the common law” that is less costly and less intrusive than directives imposed from Washington.

This article originally appeared in the July/​August 1999 edition of Cato Policy Report.