Justin Rex

Bowling Green State University, Political Science, Faculty Member

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Justin Rex is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at Bowling Green State University. and a Researcher Fellow at the BGSU Center for Regional Development. He studies the bureaucratic politics of regulation, primarily in the areas of financial regulation and the regulation of white-collar financial crime. He teaches courses in the Master of Public Administration Program as well as undergraduate courses in Public Policy

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The Unfortunate Role of Farm Subsidies as a Stimulus for Inequality and Obesity

Journal of health law, 2016

38 Governmental expenditures are directed at a particular objective, but their effects have conse... more 38 Governmental expenditures are directed at a particular objective, but their effects have consequences far beyond the named target of the expenditures. Specific farm subsidies, for example, encourage consumption of particular foods by reducing the costs of producing these foods. To what extent do these subsidies affect the American obesity epidemic? How do the subsidies create disparate negative effects on those in poverty? Exploring these questions stimulates us to take greater care when designing legislation to take a broader look at the stakeholders affected by any particular governmental expenditure.

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The Federal Banking Regulators: Agency Capture, Regulatory Failure, And Industry Collapse During The 2008 Financial Crisis

THE FEDERAL BANKING REGULATORS: AGENCY CAPTURE, REGULATORY FAILURE, AND INDUSTRY COLLAPSE DURING ... more THE FEDERAL BANKING REGULATORS: AGENCY CAPTURE, REGULATORY FAILURE, AND INDUSTRY COLLAPSE DURING THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS by JUSTIN REX August 2013 Advisor: Dr. Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson Major: Political Science Degree: Doctor of Philosophy This dissertation examines the process of agency capture at four federal bank regulatory agencies leading up to the 2008 financial crisis: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and The Office of Thrift Supervision. Though public administration and policy scholars have moved away from capture theory toward a more pluralistic understanding of agency policymaking, recent events like the Gulf oil spill, coal mining disasters, and the 2008 financial crisis have renewed attention to the role lax regulation plays in disasters and crises. As such, I set out to explore whether banks captured financial regulators, capture’s causes, and potential recommendations for improving regulat...

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The Potential Tension Between a "Free Marketplace of Ideas" and the Fundamental Purpose of Free Speech

Metaphors serve as a device moving us from what we do understand to what we wish to understand. S... more Metaphors serve as a device moving us from what we do understand to what we wish to understand. So, for example, in jurisprudential discourse about the importance of free speech for a robust democracy, we often use the term "marketplace of ideas" to suggest that fair competition in such a setting will encourage the best ideas to emerge.

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A new GIS database documenting the prevalence of U.S. air service development incentives

Journal of Air Transport Management

Criminal Prosecutions and the 2008 Financial Crisis in the US and Iceland: What Can A Small Town Icelandic Police Chief Teach the US About Prosecuting Wall Street?

Politicians, journalists, and academics alike highlight the paucity of criminal prosecutions for ... more Politicians, journalists, and academics alike highlight the paucity of criminal prosecutions for senior financial executives in the United States in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. One common argument for the lack of prosecutions is that, though industry players behaved recklessly, they did not behave criminally. This Article evaluates this claim by detailing the civil and small number of criminal actions actually taken, and by reviewing leading arguments about whether behavior before the crisis was criminal. Rejecting the “reckless innocence” explanation, this Article provides examples of criminal behavior that could have been prosecuted and reviews the literature on why there were few cases made, despite potential criminal activity. Though scholars identify numerous explanations, this Article argues a combination of inadequate investigatory resources and regulatory capture offers the best explanation. This Article then explains Iceland’s different approach and why it succes...

The Global Financial Crisis and White-Collar Crime

Criminology

No senior Wall Street executives were imprisoned for actions that contributed to the global finan... more No senior Wall Street executives were imprisoned for actions that contributed to the global financial crisis. The few criminal prosecutions for management were reserved for executives at small and regional financial firms. This stands in stark contrast to the approximately 1,000 executives jailed after the 1989 savings and loan crisis. It also runs counter to public support for criminal accountability post-crisis as well as the general trend toward criminal social control in the United States. Likewise, few firms faced criminal prosecution. Instead, the primary punishment resulted from civil penalties leveled against individuals and firms, with most of the largest banks paying billions in fines to regulatory agencies and in restitution to victims. Now that the five- or ten-year statute of limitations for the criminal fraud statutes most relevant to questionable pre-crisis behavior has passed, and the political salience and public outcry over financial misdeeds has subsided, the wind...

Building and Maintaining Air Service Through Incentive Programs

Restorative Justice, White-Collar Crime, and the 2008 Financial Crisis

Appalachian Journal of Law, 2020

Despite potential criminal behavior, no senior executives from major U.S. financial institutions ... more Despite potential criminal behavior, no senior executives from major U.S. financial institutions were incarcerated for actions related to the 2008 financial crisis, an outcome decried by a variety of academics, journalists, judges, and the broader public. This critique is premised on a retributive theory of justice and the belief that incarceration is an effective deterrent against future crime. But are calls for more criminal sanctions warranted? Restorative justice offers an alternative lens through which to critically evaluate the retributive paradigm that supports the recent calls to put more bankers in jail, and underlays the broader approach to criminal justice in the U.S. Though restorative justice has been increasingly used around the world for blue-collar street crimes and state crimes, its theory and application to white collar crime is less developed. This research fills that gap by evaluating, through the lens of restorative justice, the governmental response to financial wrongdoing related to the 2008 financial crisis. I argue that a restorative justice approach to financial regula- tion is theoretically desirable. I also outline a variety of financial regulatory reforms to more closely align the Department of Justice’s approach to white-collar financial crime and the federal financial regulators’ approach to banking regulation with restorative justice principles.

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Scoundrel or Scapegoat? A Reassessment of the Office of Thrift Supervision's Performance Before the 2008 Financial Crisis

Administration & Society, 2018

This research attempts to determine whether Congress was justified in shutting down the Office of... more This research attempts to determine whether Congress was justified in shutting down the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. I do so by comparing its performance with that of the other federal banking regulators: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Reserve. Results show that the OTS is not consistently the worst performer across a variety of measures. This finding suggests it was unfairly scapegoated and that many of the problems attributed to the OTS still remain at the other agencies, despite financial reforms in 2010.

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Criminal Prosecutions and the 2008 Financial Crisis in the U.S. and Iceland: What Can a Small Town Icelandic Police Chief Teach the U.S. about Prosecuting Wall Street

Concordia Law Review, 2019

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Anatomy of agency capture: An organizational typology for diagnosing and remedying capture

Regulation & Governance, 2018

Recent crises and disasters in regulated industries have renewed scholarly attention to regulator... more Recent crises and disasters in regulated industries have renewed scholarly attention to regulatory capture. The present research incorporates and builds on these efforts by creating a typology to help researchers and practitioners organize the capture literature. The typology has two dimensions: the degree of coordination within the regulated industry, the agents of capture; and the scope of capture within the agency and elected officials, the targets of capture. I illustrate the utility of the typology by using a case study of banking regulation before the 2008 global financial crisis. The case study uses process-tracing methodology to weigh evidence about the role and scope of capture in creating the crisis. The contributions of this research are twofold. First, for capture theory, the typology assists in organizing the disparate, multidisciplinary research on capture mechanisms and remedies. Second, for practice, this organization can lead to more accurate diagnoses about the scope of capture and suggest appropriately tailored remedies.

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The Federal Banking Regulators: Agency Capture, Regulatory Failure, And Industry Collapse During The 2008 Financial Crisis

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The President's War Agenda: A Rhetorical View

Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2011

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Window of Opportunity? Internet Gambling in Canada

Canadian Public Policy, 2009

Dans cet article, nous analysons l'état actuel et l'avenir possible du jeu sur Internet au Canada... more Dans cet article, nous analysons l'état actuel et l'avenir possible du jeu sur Internet au Canada. Grâce au concept de « créneaux de possibilités » (« policy windows ») de Kingdon, tel que l'a peaufiné Howlett (1998), nous examinons les conjonctures qui pourraient permettre que le jeu sur Internet devienne une priorité en matière de politiques publiques canadiennes. Nous concluons que cela ne pourrait se faire grâce aux voies habituelles, et nous croyons que le phénomène ne retiendra visiblement l'attention des décideurs politiques que s'il est associé à un autre problème lié à Internet, ou encore à une crise qui aurait pour conséquence d'amplifier les problèmes politiques ou économiques dus au flou qui caractérise le statut actuel du jeu sur Internet.

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The Options for Internet Gambling in Canada

American Review of Canadian Studies, 2008

Concealment of Information in Consumer Transactions in the United States, Sweden, and China: A Window to the Relationship between Individualism and Regulation

by Justin Rex and Neil Browne

Loyola Consumer Law Review, 2008

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