The Regulatory Revolution at the FTC: A Thirty-Year Perspective on Competition and Consumer Protection

In the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission had embarked on an activist consumer protection and antitrust agenda which resulted in severe public and congressional backlash, including calls to abolish the agency. Beginning in 1981, under the direction of Chairman James Miller, the FTC started down a new path of economically-oriented policymaking. This new approach helped save the FTC and laid the groundwork for it to grow into the world-class consumer protection and antitrust agency that it is today.

The Regulatory Revolution at the FTC examines this period of transition in light of continuing debate about the FTC’s mission. Editor James Campbell Cooper has assembled contributions from leading economists and scholars, including many of the central figures in the Miller-era Commission and today’s FTC, who provide a comprehensive and revealing story about the importance of economic analysis in regulatory decision-making. Together, they foster a crucial understanding of the evolution of the FTC from an agency on the brink of extinction to one widely respected for its performance and economic sophistication.

James Campbell Cooper is the Director of Research and Policy at the Law & Economics Center, and a lecturer in law at George Mason University School of Law. He previously spent several years at the Federal Trade Commission serving as an advisor to Commissioner William E. Kovacic, and Acting Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning. Before serving at the FTC, James Campbell Cooper worked in the antitrust group at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, DC. His research has appeared in publications including the Antitrust Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, International Journal ofIndustrial Organization, Journal of Regulatory Economics, and the International Review of Law & Economics. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Emory University and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, where he was a Levy Fellow and a member of the George Mason Law Review.