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Applied and bridge studies study record
Finance, money & markets

Bias Is Optional; Capture Is Structural

STATUS · Manuscript in progressSSRN · Not yet posted
Open teaching deckSSRN — not yet postedPublication record
MECHANISM
Identify the incentive structure and the condition that would falsify the claim.
RULE CHANGE
Read the intervention only after the paper shows how the current payoff space fails to support system welfare.
READER USE
Use the summary to see where private gain creates system exposure, then check the study record.
Contribution — what this adds to the conversation
Formal proof of Capture-Without-Bias Theorem, Debiasing Paradox, and Game-Change Feasibility; integrates behavioral and structural accounts.
WHAT'S NEW · Proves that system welfare degradation does not require managerial irrationality; formalizes capture as structural exclusion of system welfare from payoff space.

The paper establishes the Capture-Without-Bias Theorem: perfectly rational managers under regulatory capture systematically produce system-harming outcomes because the game structure excludes system welfare from decision payoffs. Debiasing without structural change increases harm. The solution is mandatory Decision Accounting with system welfare as a fiduciary duty, as demonstrated by the Nordic banking model.