By Peter Van Doren
Regulation is often portrayed as the use of government authority to alter market outcomes away from the interests of firms and toward those of consumers and employees. In turn, the "story" associated with deregulation is the opposite: corporations and the powerful use their influence to eliminate public sector controls on their conduct at the expense of consumers and employees.
But if the usual narrative is true how do we explain a full-page ad ...
that AT&T recently published in multiple newspapers, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, calling on Congress to pass new legislation to guarantee internet neutrality? The short answer is that existing companies often favor regulation that reduces compe- tition in ways not well understood by consumers or legislators.