Introducing a Vision of Regulation More Complex Than the Traditional One

A regulator has his doxa. One starts describing the main features of this doxa. But there are “breaches” of the doxa. The most interesting one is when the competitive equilibrium is unstable (the number of products sold should decrease). To show it, one uses a model already presented by the author (Bertrand competition, the demands being deduced from the customers’ utilities). A very interesting case is that of a start-up (the product of which can remain on the market or be retrieved). One distinguishes two “styles” of regulation, the “watchdog” one and the “permissive” one, relying on two criteria that are incommensurable. Some examples from the literature on the topic are commented.