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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Growing Pains Of Behavioral Law And Economics, Thomas S. Ulen Nov 1998

The Growing Pains Of Behavioral Law And Economics, Thomas S. Ulen

Vanderbilt Law Review

We are at the beginning of behavioral law and economics. We now see only dimly the outlines of the elaborate theory of decision making that is to come. We are like the independent scholars who examined the various parts of a very large animal and then tried to put together their reports to describe that animal; we each have bits and pieces of the elephant but no clear image of the entire beast. But we should not despair. We must remember that this behavioralist discipline is, as scholarly developments go, young. Indeed, the conventional law and economics model, to which …


Can There Be A Behavioral Law And Economics?, Samuel Issacharoff Nov 1998

Can There Be A Behavioral Law And Economics?, Samuel Issacharoff

Vanderbilt Law Review

The emergence of the modern law and economics analysis generally is dated to the early 1960s with the publication of seminal work by Ronald Coase' and subsequently by Guido Calabresi and Douglas Melamed. These articles laid the foundation for the relation between legal rules, wealth maximization, and transaction costs, which provided the pivotal application of economic analysis to legal problems. However, the current sweep of law and economics would have been inconceivable without Gary Becker's insight into the application of neoclassical comparisons of marginal utility to the stuff of everyday life. Becker's analysis of routine decision making in terms of …


Putting Rational Actors In Their Place: Economics And Phenomenology, Edward L. Rubin Nov 1998

Putting Rational Actors In Their Place: Economics And Phenomenology, Edward L. Rubin

Vanderbilt Law Review

The model of human behavior that is used in microeconomics is both normative and descriptive. As a normative model, it is an historical successor to the medieval concept of grace and the Renaissance concept of virtue. As a descriptive model, it is a theory of human psychology. Economists tend to deemphasize this point be- cause psychology is a notoriously "soft" science, and economists aspire to the "hard" sciences' precision. Nonetheless, any model that states the way human beings behave under specified circumstances is necessarily a theory of the way the human mind functions, and thus be- longs in the category …


Public Choice Revisited, Daniel A. Farber, Philip P. Frickey May 1998

Public Choice Revisited, Daniel A. Farber, Philip P. Frickey

Michigan Law Review

Although not the first book on public choice_ for a legal audience, Max Stearns's Public Choice and Public Law is the first full-scale textbook for law school use. An ambitious undertaking by a rising young scholar, the book provides law students with a comprehensive introduction to public choice. Public choice - essentially, the application of economic reasoning to political institutions - has become a significant aspect of public law scholarship. Indeed, in his Foreword, Saul Levmore hails public choice as "[t]he most exciting intellectual development in law schools in the last decade" (p. xi). Be that as it may, the …


Public Choice Theory And The Fragmented Web Of The Contemporary Administrative State, Jim Rossi May 1998

Public Choice Theory And The Fragmented Web Of The Contemporary Administrative State, Jim Rossi

Michigan Law Review

Since World War II, public choice theory - defined broadly as the application of the assumptions and methodology of microeconomics to describe or predict the way public officials exercise power - has grown from a fledgling movement, gaining mainstream acceptance and respect for its insights into voting behavior, judicial decisionmaking, and other public actions. Although a theory first explored by economists and political scientists, public choice's normative insights have earned credibility in recent years in academic legal literature. Public choice's acceptance in the law school curriculum is demonstrated by the recent publication of course material on the topic. However, despite …