Regulating Informational Intermediation

Abstract

In this contribution, I would like to explore the extent to which we can survive in a world without regulatively privileged informational intermediaries, and to the extent that we cannot, whether there are ways to regulate their conduct with a view to improving the utility of their output. I discuss in Part I the reasons why I do not think we can completely kick the habit of relying on informational intermediaries for essential regulatory tasks. I turn to the problems with the models most frequently invoked to regulate informational intermediaries in Part II, as well as the concerns raised by the compensation models regulators and commentators have proposed in Part III. In Part IV, I offer some thoughts as to whether an "outcome-based" approach to regulating informational intermediaries might not, in tandem with the other approaches, rehabilitate the fallen angels among informational intermediaries.

Keywords: privileged information, informational intermediaries