Starting out with a bang...

Yesterday's launch event for the Doing Business Evaluation provoked a lively discussion about whether regulations offer any benefits at all, or whether they are purely an excuse for bribe-taking with no redeeming value.   Our discussant Dennis de Tray took the latter view, based on his expereinces in Timor Leste.   Paul Krugman's article in Friday's NYTimes offers another perspective.   The moral of Krugman's article, he writes, is "that failure to regulate effectively isn't just bad for consumers, it's bad for business".     Mexican tomatoes, Indian pharmaceuticals, Chinese schools, and countless other examples should make it clear that 'good' regulation is vital both to consumers and producers, let alone the safety and security of workers, and the benefits of regulation can't simply be ignored.