Law Commons^™

The Obama Administration's New 'Repaye' Plan For Student Loan Borrowers: Not Much Help For Law School Graduates, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In response to President Obama’s 2014 directive the DOE has proposed a new student loan repayment option, labeled the Repay As You Earn Plan (“REPAYE Plan”). The DOE on July 9, 2015 requested comments on their proposed REPAYE Plan rules, and the Plan will probably be open for enrollment in early 2016 for up to 6 million student loan borrowers who are not eligible for enrollment in the generous Pay As You Earn Plan (“PAYE Plan”) because of their pre-October 1, 2007 federal student loan debts. I estimate that approximately 72,000 of those 6 million persons are law graduates. However, …

Teaching About Economic Efficiency In Law And Economics Courses: Clarifying The Conceptual Problems, Empirical Difficulties, And Normative Biases Of The Efficiency Criterion, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Law and Economics courses taught in law schools are sometimes criticized for inadequately explaining the normative criterion of “economic efficiency” and then applying this criterion throughout the course in a superficial and biased manner that pejoratively labels most governmental market interventions and wealth redistribution measures as inefficient. These criticisms have merit, and in this brief article I point out a significant number of conceptual problems, empirical difficulties and normative shortcomings of the efficiency criterion that one needs to understand in order to be able to effectively counter policy arguments that rest upon efficiency assessments.

The specific shortcomings of the efficiency …