El objetivo del presente artículo es revisar el análisis económico que sirvió para justificar la modalidad tradicional de regulación económica, los desarrollos teóricos que fundamentaron su cuestionamiento, las líneas de pensamiento que sustentaron las nuevas modalidades que adoptó la regulación, la apuesta por la promoción de la competencia y las nuevas proposiciones en favor de una completa desregulación
This article peruse the different economics views that lay down the main theoretical propositions on regulation. On the first hand, the traditional theory, that based in a naive comprehension of the state promoted a regulatory mechanism that neither secure a cost minimization nor hindered the extraction of extraordinary rents. After, it reviews the economic theory of regulation that, in spite of a more realistic vision of the motivations of politicians and civil servants, idealising the market, proposed a radical deregulation. The New Institutional Economics makes a new formulation of the debate between State and Market, and it emphasizes the role played by institutions on the economic perfomance and the regulation. Finally, after a review of the incentive regulation, it discusses the actual debate between those that are proposing deregulation and those that assign essential importance to the promotion of competition linked to an adequate regulation as the way to a competitive and efficient economy.