Roslyn Layton in the Regulatory Review

Roslyn Layton is a leading contributor to The Regulatory Review, published by the University of Pennsylvania Program on Regulation. Her work examines how regulatory design shapes the performance, resilience, and accountability of critical infrastructure systems—including telecommunications, transportation, digital platforms, and emerging financial technologies. Across multiple essays, Layton advances an evidence-based, systems-oriented approach to regulation, emphasizing incentives, ownership responsibility, and institutional competence over symbolic or prescriptive rulemaking.

Her contributions consistently challenge legacy regulatory assumptions, arguing that outdated frameworks often impede innovation, safety, and resilience while failing to align responsibility with decision-making authority. By drawing on real-world infrastructure performance—during crises, technological transitions, and market restructuring—Layton’s writing highlights the practical consequences of regulatory choices and offers constructive pathways for modernization.

Selected Contributions to The Regulatory Review

• Netflix’s $5.8 Billion Breakup Fee (January 5, 2026)
  In this essay, Roslyn Layton examines the record-sized $5.8 billion breakup fee tied to Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and argues that such fees should be treated as ordinary business expenses for tax purposes. She situates the fee within the theory of the firm as a transaction-cost mitigation tool that signals commitment, enhances deal transparency, and influences merger incentives. Drawing on precedent and recent tax-court developments, Layton highlights how tax treatment can shape corporate deal-making, affect regulatory incentives, and ultimately impact investment, innovation, and market activity.
• A Pivotal Case Shaping Cryptocurrency Regulation (June 17, 2025)
  Analyzes a landmark legal dispute with far-reaching implications for how digital assets are classified, governed, and enforced in the United States, underscoring the risks of regulatory ambiguity in fast-moving financial technologies.
• Labor Regulation at the Department of Transportation (April 2, 2025)
  Examines how labor mandates and administrative inertia at DOT affect safety outcomes, innovation, and infrastructure performance across transport modes.
• Improving Truck and Train Safety (June 17, 2024)
  Critiques obsolete safety regulations—such as rail crew-size mandates—that hinder adoption of proven technologies, and calls for harmonized, liability-based safety regimes across freight transportation.
• Safety Culture vs. Safety Systems in U.S. Transportation (May 11, 2024)
  Challenges behavior-focused regulatory models, advocating instead for system-level safety design that prioritizes engineering, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Network Owners Rise to the Occasion Even in a Pandemic (August 18, 2020)
  Highlights how privately owned telecommunications and freight rail networks maintained continuity under pandemic stress, contrasting their performance with regulatory dependence on legacy systems.