The Revolving Chain

The Revolving Door

The revolving door between the government and the private sector has long been presumed to lead to the capture of regulators by industry interests. A growing body of empirical literature, however, either finds no conclusive evidence of a capture effect or finds evidence of an opposite effect that the revolving door indeed results in more aggressive, not less aggressive, regulatory actions. To a...

Revolving Door Scenario for

IN THIS ISSUE In this issue of Physics & Society, we continue our series on the risks of nuclear weapons after the Cold War. In their article Illicit Trafficking of Weapons-Usable Nuclear Material: Facts and Uncertainties, Lyudmila Zaitseva and Friedrich Steinhausler have provided us with a very detailed look at what is known about the smuggling of fissile materials. They have also provided a r...

Inductive Signals: Revolving vertebrates

An old idea about the relationship between arthropod and vertebrate body plans has been given new life by studies of the signalling genes controlling dorsal and ventral development in Drosophila and Xenopus.

Closing the revolving door for OR staff.

Does the Revolving Door Affect the SEC’s Enforcement Outcomes?

We provide empirical evidence on the consequences of the “revolving door” phenomenon at the SEC. If future job opportunities make SEC lawyers exert more enforcement effort to showcase their expertise, then the revolving door phenomenon will promote more aggressive regulatory activity (the “human capital” hypothesis). In contrast, SEC lawyers can relax enforcement efforts in order to curry favor...