Abstract
This study used path analysis to test a model positing that relevant governance mechanisms will have both direct and indirect relationships with regulatory captures (RCs) through the mediating effects of regulation. Based on a sample (n = 193) of regulatory public employees, results generally supported the hypothesised model for both supervisor- and self-assessed RCs. Accountability had a direct relationship with individual regulatory captures (RC-I), participation had a direct relationship with organisational regulatory captures (RC-O), and regulation had a direct relationship with both RC-I and RC-O. In addition, regulation partially mediated the relationship between accountability and both RC-O and RC-I. Overall, the results show that governance mechanisms differentially predict RCs and that regulators' attitudes about their regulation explain, in part, these associations between governance mechanisms and regulatory captures.