Scholars sometimes criticize durable regulatory systems for being costly, inefficient, ineffective, and inequitable. This article reassesses regulation, arguing that a mis-categorization of types of regulatory activity has led critics astray. More specifically, the article observes that regulation “hardened” by being built into infrastructure often ceases to be seen as regulation and its benefits are therefore inappropriately omitted from assessments of regulatory accomplishments. Hardening into one or another durable form can create two important benefits: durable regulation moves some items off the agenda of regulators, conserving resources for other regulatory work; durable regulation also creates regulatory endowments, preserving key bargains struck at the time infrastructure was created and reducing future opportunities for capture. Such endowments can then become the foundation for other regulatory work. Examples from the regulation of drinking water in the United States and brief discussions of road safety and disability regulation illustrate the argument.

中文翻译：

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地下成功：持久的监管和监管禀赋

学者们有时批评持久的监管系统成本高、效率低、效率低和不公平。本文重新评估监管，认为对监管活动类型的错误分类导致批评者误入歧途。更具体地说，该文章观察到，通过内置到基础设施中而“强化”的监​​管通常不再被视为监管，因此在监管成就的评估中不恰当地忽略了它的好处。强化成一种或另一种持久的形式可以带来两个重要的好处：持久的监管将某些项目从监管机构的议程中移开，为其他监管工作节省资源；持久监管还创造了监管禀赋，保留了在创建基础设施时达成的关键交易，并减少了未来的捕获机会。这样的禀赋可以成为其他监管工作的基础。美国饮用水监管的例子以及对道路安全和残疾监管的简要讨论说明了这一论点。