David Vogel's research focuses on business-government relations with a particular emphasis on the comparative and international dimensions of environmental and consumer regulation. He also writes on corporate social responsibility, and religion and environmentalism. Vogel teaches classes on environmental policy, and business ethics and corporate responsibility. His books include The Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies (co-editor, Robert Kagan) (UC Press 2004), Barriers or Benefits? Regulation in Transatlantic Trade (Brookings 1998), Kindred Strangers: The Relationship Between Business and Politics in America (Princeton University Press 1996), Trading Up: Consumer and Environmental Regulation in a Global Economy (Harvard University Press, 1995), Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Power of Business in American (Basic Books 1989) and National Styles of Regulation: Environmental Policy in Great Britain and the United States (Cornell University Press, 1986).What's the Beef? The Contested Governance of European Food Safety (co-editor Chris Ansell) MIT Press, 2006) The Market For Virtue: The Potential And Limits Of Corporate Social Responsibility, (Brookings Institution Press, 2005).

His most recent book is The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States (Princeton University Press 2012)