1 Regulation/deregulation Kean Fan Lim School of Geography University of Nottingham Pre-publication version; forthcoming in: Wiley-Association of American Geographers International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology Word count: 5122 (including all references) Abstract: Economic regulation is dynamically entwined with deregulation. Contrary to the logic of market fundamentalism, producers and/or consumers do not always benefit from deregulation. Rational-choice theories of regulation have not impacted economic- geographical research as much as Regulation Theory (RT). Developed in France to theorize the crisis of Fordism, RT underscores the importance of social regulation in the capital accumulation process. Rather than study deregulation as an endstate, RT emphasizes regulatory reconfiguration and repurposing. Despite its eventual decline, RT left a strong legacy on economic-geographical research on (de)regulation. There is strong potential for current and future studies to build on this legacy, particularly in research on variegated neoliberalization and primitive accumulation. Main text A dynamic entwinement Economic regulation is the political control and monitoring of activities involving the production and exchange of commodities. Commodities are goods and services that can be put up for sale, including land, money and labor power. Regulators are vested specifically with the power to determine – often but not exclusively through legislative mechanisms – entry and exit to geographically-defined markets; price floors and ceilings; subsidies for and the taxation of producers and consumers within these markets; mergers and acquisitions that may affect market entry or exit; and items that can be imported and exported from these markets. Entwined with economic regulations are social regulations such as traffic rules, pollution guidelines and educational standards. These regulations enable social cohesion and, by extension, the smooth functioning of commodity exchange. In many respects, socioeconomic regulation is the de facto antithesis to ideal-typical ‘free markets’: producers have to adjust their strategies in relation to regulatory constraints in different locations and industrial sectors in order to continue operations, while consumers’ purchasing decisions are shaped directly by pricing controls and taxes. Viewed across a landscape of variegated socioeconomic regulations that are determined by geography, sector and competing interest groups, it is clear the notion of ‘ceteris paribus’ will inevitably remain an assumption in economic studies. Deregulation refers to the removal of pre-existing restrictions on economic practices. It became a major political focal point in the hitherto highly-regulated US economy after then-President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. His successor Gerald Ford almost immediately worked at removing constraints to production and trade in major industries such as banking, transport and energy. A process of competitive deregulation ensued and became pronounced after individual state governments within the US were allowed to deregulate industries and consequently trigger wholesale changes in other states without affecting existing regulations in those states. For instance, following the 1978 Supreme Court decision to permit an operating bank to