The University of Georgia – Terry College of Business has recently relaunched the James C. Bonbright Center for the Study of Regulation, broadening the center’s scope to address regulation across a wide range of sectors.
The Bonbright Center was founded in 1990 to study regulation of public utilities. The center was named for James Bonbright, a finance professor at Columbia Business School, who organized a public utilities conference at UGA alongside Economics Professors Al Danielsen and David Kamerschen. Bonbright passed away at age 93 in 1985, after which his wife, Martha, established the research center in his memory.
The Bonbright Center will soon be expanded and will include funding support for faculty and graduate research, graduate assistantships, visiting lectures and undergraduate internships. The increased funding will also allow the center to advance research into how regulatory economics shapes public policy and influences markets.
“A wider focus means that the center’s work can branch out from utilities to research concerning pharmaceutical markets, intellectual property, healthcare education and crime that are all important parts of American public policy discussions,” said the Bonbright Center’s new director, David B. Mustard. “By evaluating the costs, benefits and unintended consequences of regulations, we can identify better ways to implement and eliminate regulations to improve people’s lives.”
One highlight of the center’s relaunch will be a guest lecture from Jonathan Gruber, the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT and principle architect behind Massachusetts’ healthcare reform act. Gruber’s lecture, “Health Care Reform: Where to Now?” will be open to the public and take place at the end of September.