Regulation has a long history, pre-dating the industrial revolution, and takes many different forms.
More recently, economists have been mostly interested in the regulation of private natural monopolies , such as utilities. The system of regulation of financial services has also been under recent review. There has also been recent interest in the justification for and consequences of a broader range of regulatory instruments. Regulation may be imposed simply by enacting laws and leaving their supervision to the normal processes of the law, by setting up special regulatory agencies or by encouraging self-regulation by recognizing, and in some cases delegating powers to, voluntary bodies. Except where regulation is necessary to prevent the abuse of monopoly power, in the interests of preserving health and safety or to correct externalities or other instances of market failure , and even then, there is a risk that the compliance costs and other costs of regulation may exceed the social benefits .