Regulating Capital: Setting Standards for the International Financial System (Cornell Studies in Money)

Singer offers a refreshing approach to the analysis of regulatory issues in international financial markets. Recommended. -Choice

David Andrew Singer focuses on the financial regulatory process in major industrial countries; the tensions between regulatory prudence and international competitiveness; the constant possibility of a legislative intervention, especially after financial crises; and the efforts by national regulators to preserve their autonomy through, paradoxically, the international negotiation of common norms. He discusses well the attempts of major countries over the past two decades to frame common positions, which were partially successful in the case of banking, less so for the securities and insurance industries. -Foreign Affairs

David Andrew Singer explains the variation in support for international regulatory initiatives among states, highlighting the distinctive constraints and incentives faced by regulators. Regulating Capital adds to our understanding of international regulation-especially in its exploration of the insurance industry and the securities market. -Tony Porter, McMaster University

Regulating Capital explores efforts-both successful and failed-to govern global financial markets. David Andrew Singer focuses our attention on domestic financial regulators, whose constraints and opportunities at home drive their actions abroad. Singer very ably brings to light often-neglected areas of political economy, including banking, insurance, and securities regulation. Singer makes a convincing case that these realms of the economy are central to international economic growth and stability, as well as to the study of global governance. -Layna Mosley, University of North Carolina

Regulating Capital brings the timely subject of global finance within reach of a broad audience with a simple and compelling argument: financial regulators seek to harmonize regulations of capital in order to balance their twin mandates of maintaining domestic financial stability and protecting the international competitiveness of domestic financial firms. I marvel at David Andrew Singer's ability to illuminate in such a concise account the experiences of the three biggest players-the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan-in regulating the three central financial industries of banking, securities, and insurance. I expect that Singer's book will entice a new generation of political scientists to delve into the political economy of finance, for it brings this complex subject into conversation with important debates in the discipline. -Frances McCall Rosenbluth, Damon Wells Professor of Political Science and Director, Leitner Program in Comparative and International Political Economy, Yale University