Law Commons^™

Google And Shifting Conceptions Of What It Means To Improve A Product, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Popular Media

Judges sometimes claim that they do not pick winners when they decide antitrust cases. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Competitive conduct by its nature harms competitors, and so if antitrust were merely to prohibit harm to competitors, antitrust would then destroy what it is meant to promote.

What antitrust prohibits, therefore, is not harm to competitors but rather harm to competitors that fails to improve products. Only in this way is antitrust able to distinguish between the good firm that harms competitors by making superior products that consumers love and that competitors cannot match and the bad firm …

The Sources And Consequences Of Political Rhetoric: Issue Importance, Collegial Bargaining, And Disagreeable Rhetoric In Supreme Court Opinions, Michael A. Zilis, Justin Wedeking

Political Science Faculty Publications

How do political actors use rhetoric after an initial policy battle? We explore factors that lead Supreme Court justices to integrate disagreeable rhetoric into opinions. Although disagreeable language has negative consequences, we posit that justices pay this cost for issues with high personal significance. At the same time, we argue that integrating disagreeable rhetoric has a deleterious effect on the institution by reducing majority coalition size. Examining opinions from 1946 to 2011 using text-based measures of disagreeable rhetoric, we model the language of opinion writing as well as explore the consequences for coalition size. Our findings suggest serious implications for …

Toward A Per Se Rule Against Price Gouging, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Price gouging is the use of high prices to ration access to a good in unexpectedly short supply. Because sellers can always recoup their costs by choosing not to ration with price and instead allowing the good to sell out, price gouging harms consumers: it transfers wealth from consumers to firms unnecessarily. This harm to consumers could violate the antitrust laws in two ways. First, it could serve as the basis for a per se rule against algorithmic price gouging — surge pricing — because the superhuman speeds with which surge pricing algorithms respond to shortages effectively shorten the period …

Do Gun Policies Really Protect Women? A Cross-National Test Of The Relationship Between Gun Regulations And Female Homicide Victimization, Janet Stamatel, Kathleen Ratajczak, Robert Hoekstra

Sociology Faculty Publications

Globally, firearms are the most frequent means of committing homicide with young males most likely to be victimized with guns. However, within the context of intimate partner violence and family violence, females’ risk of lethal gun violence rises significantly, supporting the need to pay more attention to firearms to reduce lethal VAW. One way to protect women from firearm violence within the private sphere is to regulate access to guns based on the risk of family violence. This study examines the extent to which gun availability and gun regulations affect lethal violence against women in a relatively large sample of …

The Hidden Shortages Of The Market Economy, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Popular Media

If you think shortages—in goods like toilet paper, meat, and masks—came in with the pandemic, think again.

Shortages are periods during which demand exceeds supply, and they’re an inescapable feature of all markets, all the time.

When an investor bids up the price of Apple stock because none is available at current prices, that’s a shortage. When a homeowner receives multiple bids for her home, that’s a shortage. When there are “only three left in stock” on Amazon and four users click “buy,” that, too, is a shortage.

We don’t notice these quotidian shortages because sellers usually respond to them …

The Economics Of Shortages, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Popular Media

The price of food increased 2.6% in April, the largest single-month increase since 1974, but food industry executives are insisting that the country has enough food. So why are prices going up?

The explanation provided by the industry is that consumers are buying more than they need, creating shortages.

But a shortage is not a good excuse for increasing prices. Contrary to what you might have learned in Econ 101, there’s only one reason for which a shortage should give rise to higher prices: profiteering, as I explain in a forthcoming law review article.

If shortage were the only explanation …

The Antitrust Case For Consumer Primacy In Corporate Governance, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Consumers have been left out of the great debate over the mission of the firm, in which advocates of shareholder value maximization face off against advocates of corporate social responsibility, who would allow management leeway to allocate profits to workers and other non-shareholder insiders of the firm. The consumer welfare standard adopted by antitrust law in the 1970s requires that the firm allocate its profits neither to shareholders nor to workers or other firm insiders. Instead, the standard requires that firms strive to have no profits at all, by charging the lowest possible prices for the best quality products. Such …

The Efficient Queue And The Case Against Dynamic Pricing, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Surge pricing—using data and algorithms to raise prices in response to unexpected increases in demand—has spread across the economy in recent years, from Amazon, to Disney World, to commuter highways, not to mention Uber, which is infamous for surge pricing rides. Companies claim that surge pricing equilibrates supply and demand, but that is impossible, at least in the short run when demand unexpectedly outstrips supply. What surge pricing really does is to ration existing supplies based on ability to pay. That is both distributively unjust and potentially inefficient. It is also anticompetitive in the sense that it reduces the power …

The Virulence Of Free Trade, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Popular Media

Specialists know that the antitrust courses taught in law schools and economics departments have an alter ego in business curricula: the course on business strategy. The two courses cover the same material, but from opposite perspectives. Antitrust courses teach how to end monopolies; strategy courses teach how to construct and maintain them.

Strategy students go off and run businesses, and antitrust students go off and make government policy. That is probably the proper arrangement if the policy the antimonopolists make is domestic. We want the domestic economy to run efficiently, and so we want domestic policymakers to think about monopoly—and …

Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, And Consumer Welfare, Charles J. Courtemanche, David Frisvold, David Jimenez-Gomez, Mariétou H. Ouayogodé, Michael Price

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a mandate requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards. This paper investigates whether and why calorie posting laws work. To do so, we develop a model of calories consumed that highlights two potential channels through which mandates influence choice and outlines an empirical strategy to disentangle these alternatives. We test the predictions of our model using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to compare changes in body mass index (BMI), obesity, and consumer well-being in locations that implemented calorie-posting laws between 2008 and …

When Your Plate Is Already Full: Efficient And Meaningful Outcomes Assessment For Busy Law Schools, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation standards involving outcome-based assessment are a game changer for legal education. The standards reaffirm the importance of providing students with formative feedback throughout their course of study to assess and improve student learning. The standards also require law schools to evaluate their effectiveness, and to do so from the perspective of student performance within the institution’s program of study. The relevant question is no longer what are law schools teaching their students, but instead, what are students learning from law schools in terms of the knowledge, skills, and values that are essential for those …

Queering The Carceral Cycle: Women's Resistance To The Carceral State, Ashley Ruderman-Looff

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

Building upon feminist and queer scholarship that recognizes mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex as elements of an inherently violent carceral state, Queering the Carceral Cycle excavates and analyzes twentieth-century incidents in which women resisted the state’s criminalization and/or punishment of multiply marginalized women. I argue that the state’s response to women’s acts of resistance prompted the development of new carceral strategies and technologies that expanded the carceral state’s investment in control and punishment. Moreover, by critically embracing a Foucauldian scheme known as the “carceral cycle,” I demonstrate how the state traps multiply marginalized women in a seemingly endless recurrence …

Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation explores whether and how the re-election prospects faced by trial court judges in many American states influence criminal justice policy, specifically, state levels of incarceration, as well as the disparity in rates of incarceration for Whites and Blacks. Do states where trial court judges must worry about facing reelection tend to encourage judicial behavior that results in higher incarceration rates? And are levels of incarceration and racial disparities in the states influenced by the proportion of the state publics who want more punitive policies? These are clearly important questions because they speak directly to several normative and empirical …

What Is "Government" "Speech"? The Case Of Confederate Monuments, Richard C. Schragger

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Disappearing Act: How To Prevent The Decline Of Black Farmers In The United States, Jordan M. Jennings

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

From Petri Dish To Main Dish: The Legal Pathway For Cell-Based Meat, Brian P. Sylvester, Nathan A. Beaver, Kara Schoonover, Jonathan I. Tietz

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

Meat grown outside an animal is no longer simply science fiction, and the market is poised for introduction of a variety of so-called cell-based meat products. Commercializing these products will require a clear regulatory path forward. In this Article, we explore that legal pathway. We introduce the concepts of cellular agriculture and cell-based meat, including the science, the state and history of the industry, and the general regulatory background, in which the USDA and FDA are the major players. Further, we explore in particular regulatory aspects of food safety and labeling in the context of cell-based meat. Overall, we contend …

A Quixotic Quest For Definition: Perceptions Of “Organic” And Implications For The Environment And For Market Participants, Becky L. Jacobs, Chelsea Jacobs

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Farm To Food Desert: A Look At How The Agriculture And Nutrition Act Of 2018 Affects Food Insecurity And Access To Fresh Fruits And Vegetables, Lexington Souers

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Harmonizing ‘Converted Wetland’ Under The Clean Water Act And Food Security Act Would Reaffirm Congress’S Intent To Limit Epa And Army Corps 404 Jurisdiction, Lawrence A. Kogan

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Plugging Problems: How States In The Ohio River Basin Can Address Orphan Oil And Gas Wells, Connor Hicks

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Shooting Fish, Michael L. Smith

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Energy, Electricity And Smart Grids In Latvia And Portugal – Developments And Concerns, Rafael Leal-Arcas, Filipa Santos, Danai Papadea

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Three Essays On Entry Barriers And Incentives In Labor Markets, Samuel Ingram

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

Occupational choice at the margin depends on both the incentives for entry and barriers to entry. The primary entry barrier determined by regulation is an occupational license. These are government laws determining the minimum qualifications to enter an occupation including education, testing, fees, and background checks. These regulations are currently enforced on 25% of the US labor market. The laws are crafted to protect consumers from unsafe goods and services but also have important consequences in labor market outcomes. The consequences may include fewer workers entering the profession, changes to which workers enter the profession, and altering competition, all of …

Monumental Questions And How We Honor Them, Melynda J. Price

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Confederate Monuments As Badges Of Slavery, Alexander Tsesis

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Abram I. Elkus: The New York Yankees' First Lawyer, Robert M. Jarvis

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Should Employers Have The Ability To Enforce Non-Compete Agreements Without Also Offering A Written Employment Contract?, Rowan Reid

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Rose And Its Effects: A Thirty-Year Retrospective, S. Patrick Riley

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Written In Stone: The Meaning Of Public Monuments And Whether They Remain Or Go, Sanford Levinson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Hemp, Kentucky, And The Law, Ryan Quarles

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.