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Full-Text Articles in Law
Putting A Price On Carbon: The Metaphor, David M. Driesen
Putting A Price On Carbon: The Metaphor, David M. Driesen
David M Driesen
This Essay analyzes the characterization of both pollution taxes and so-called cap-and-trade programs addressing greenhouse gas emissions as policies that “put a price on carbon,” a characterization that has come to dominate both policy discussion and much modern scholarship on environmental instrument choice. It shows that the rationale for characterizing cap-and-trade— a quantitative rather than a pricing mechanism— as putting a price on carbon suggests that analysts should likewise treat traditional regulation as a mechanism putting a price on carbon. Treating “market-based mechanisms” as uniquely putting a price on carbon reflects and perpetuates a tendency to see markets and government …
Job Loss And The Incohernet Expansion Of Cost-Benefit Analysis, David M. Driesen
Job Loss And The Incohernet Expansion Of Cost-Benefit Analysis, David M. Driesen
David M Driesen
This piece discusses the question of whether regulatory agencies should quantify job loss stemming from government regulation for purposes of cost-benefit analysis. It argues that doing so produces biased analysis through double counting of regulatory costs and asymmetric analysis. It also argues that the dollar value of job loss defies quantification.
Contract Law's Inefficiency, David M. Driesen
Contract Law's Inefficiency, David M. Driesen
David M Driesen
Neoclassical economic theory seems to aptly characterize contract law’s essence. Contracts enable two parties to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, thereby facilitating economically efficient transactions. It would seem to follow that the achievement of economic efficiency serves as contract law’s major goal. This article, however, examines an alternative hypothesis, that contract law is about enforcing inefficient bargains in order to provide enough security to facilitate cooperation among economic actors over long periods of time. On this account, contract law manages change over time, rather than achieves static efficiency. While recognizing that parties execute contracts in order to realize an efficient …