In Regulation, many of the nation’s top economists, law professors, and other policy experts offer easy-to-understand guidance and insights on microeconomics and regulatory policy affecting every American’s life. For four decades, this quarterly journal has examined nearly every market, from agriculture to health and transportation, and nearly every government intervention, from interstate commerce to labor law and price controls.
A century ago, American political leaders and labor unions decried a threat to both public safety and economic security: the in-flow of Chinese laborers and the growing popularity of Chinese restaurants. Those concerns led to strict controls on immigration and tight regulation of “chop suey houses,” which were thought to be dens of vice and violence, especially dangerous to young, white women. As far-fetched as that now sounds, today’s concerns about immigration echo many of the ideas of a century ago.
