He is an Eminent Scholar in the Department of Economics, and the Director of Robert F. Lanzillotti Public Policy Research Center at the University of Florida.
[1] Sappington also serves as the director of the Robert F. Lanzillotti Public Policy Research Center, and as a member of the advisory committee of the Digital Markets Initiative at the University of Florida.
His early research focuses on the special complications that arise when economic actors have limited resources, and so cannot be held financially liable for poor performance.
[10][11][12] Sappington’s later research emphasizes the optimal design of regulatory policy when the regulator does not have ready access to all relevant information.
Historically, economists typically analyzed the design of regulatory policy in settings where the regulator is well-informed about all relevant elements of the environment.
[13] In practice, regulators (and policymakers more generally) seldom are perfectly informed about all relevant aspects of the environment in which they operate.