A Production Function of Economic Regulation: the Example of Forced Money
Abstract: Regulation of any specific economic issue depends on the severity and importance of the problem it tries to address, the economic ideology of the legislature, and the constitutional nature of the regime. These three factors are substitutes in a formal production function of economic regulation. I illustrate this substitutability and the working of the production function with a law that criminalizes rejection of official money. Enacted in the French Revolution to support hyperinflated money, it was transplanted all over the world, crossed legal systems, and still survives, because it catered to the needs of belligerents, socialists, and dictators.
