
All solutions have costs, and there is no reason to suppose that governmental regulation is called for simply because the problem is not well handled by the market or the firm.
Satisfactory views on policy can only come from a patient study of how, in practice, the market, firms and governments handle the problem of harmful effects….
It is my belief that economists, and policy-makers generally, have tended to over-estimate the advantages which come from governmental regulation.
But this belief, even if justified, does not do more than suggest that government regulation should be curtailed. It does not tell us where the boundary line should be drawn.
This, it seems to me, has to come from a detailed investigation of the actual results of handling the problem in different ways.
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