Business Regulatory Lessons Learned from Amusement Park Safety Concerns: An Integrated Approach to Business Regulation

The modern global economy encompasses a wide variety of businesses and companies. Businesses differ greatly in their method of operation and definition of success. Businesses range from small local companies to international corporations. Given this wide variance, business regulation is a very complex topic. There is no one-size-fits-all method of regulation. A method that will work well in one industry might fail in another. Thus, it is crucial to understand the major types of regulation and select the method which best fits a given industry or problem. This article examines the following four major types of business regulations: command and control regulation, market-based incentives, information disclosure, and management-based regulation. The article argues that the selection of a business regulation type should be based upon the regulation’s substantive ability to address a specific problem or harm. In other words, selecting the best regulation to correct a problem depends upon the exact harm involved. The method of regulation that is