“Naïve Energy Markets” and the Boundary Between Markets and Regulation (David Spence, University of Texas School of Law and McCombs School of Business)

“After World War II economic critiques of government and regulation reached some pretty negative and cynical conclusions about government and its ability to maximize social welfare.”

“Most of the time career regulators are sincerely trying to execute the statutory mission they’ve been given.”

“If what I think about a problem when I don’t know a lot about it is different from what I would think if I knew a lot about it, someone can exploit that lack of knowledge.  That’s what politics is a lot of the time. [Regulatory decision making] is the closest we come today to the Madisonian ideal of deliberative democracy.”

Professor David Spence is Baker Botts Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor of Business Government & Society at the McCombs School of Business. Professor Spence’s research focuses on the law and politics of energy regulation, broadly defined, including the environmental regulation of the oil and gas industry and the electric utility industry, as well as economic regulation (regulation of price and competition) in the public utility industry. He has Ph.D in political science from Duke University and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina.