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Law and Economics

2014

Selected Works

Social Welfare

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Minding The Gaps: Fairness, Welfare, And The Constitutive Structure Of Distributive Assessment, Robert C. Hockett Dec 2014

Minding The Gaps: Fairness, Welfare, And The Constitutive Structure Of Distributive Assessment, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

Despite over a century’s disputation and attendant opportunity for clarification, the field of inquiry now loosely labeled “welfare economics” (WE) remains surprisingly prone to foundational confusions. The same holds of work done by many practitioners of WE’s influential offshoot, normative “law and economics” (LE). A conspicuous contemporary case of confusion turns up in recent discussion concerning “fairness versus welfare.” The very naming of this putative dispute signals a crude category error. “Welfare” denotes a proposed object of distribution. “Fairness” describes and appropriate pattern of distribution. Welfare itself is distributed fairly or unfairly. “Fairness versus welfare” is analytically on all fours …


The Long Quest For Legal Efficiency. On The Illusion Of A Process-Free Economic Analysis Of Law, Daniele Bertolini Feb 2014

The Long Quest For Legal Efficiency. On The Illusion Of A Process-Free Economic Analysis Of Law, Daniele Bertolini

daniele bertolini

In this paper I attempt to reconstruct and scrutinize the long lasting debate on economic efficiency as a legal concern, and to show that the prevailing idea of economic efficiency - which is exclusively referring to the contents of legal rules as disconnected from the features of the lawmaking process - misses the essence of the discipline. I demonstrate that conventional output-oriented approach is susceptible to the following criticisms: (1) it is affected by logical circularity and/or logical incompleteness; (2) it does not provide any guarantee of social welfare increases; (3) it does not account for the presence of losers; …


Inclusionary Eminent Domain, Gerald S. Dickinson Dec 2013

Inclusionary Eminent Domain, Gerald S. Dickinson

Gerald S. Dickinson

This article proposes a paradigm shift in takings law, namely “inclusionary eminent domain.” This new normative concept – paradoxical in nature – rethinks eminent domain as an inclusionary land assembly framework that is equipped with multiple tools to help guide municipalities, private developers and communities construct or preserve affordable housing developments. Analogous to inclusionary zoning, inclusionary eminent domain helps us think about how to fix the “exclusionary eminent domain” phenomenon of displacing low-income families by assembling and negotiating the use of land – prior to, during or after condemnation proceedings – to accommodate affordable housing where condemnation threatens to decrease …