Law Commons^™

Justice And Fairness In The Dictator Game, Bart Wilson, Karl Schurter

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Exchange And Specialisation As A Discovery Process, Bart Wilson, Sean Crockett, Vernon Smith

Bart J Wilson

No abstract provided.

Poisoning The Well: Law & Economics And Racial Inequality, Robert Suggs

Robert E. Suggs

The standard Law & Economics analysis of racial discrimination has stunted our thinking about race. Its early conclusion, that laws prohibiting racial discrimination were unnecessary and wasteful, discredited economic analysis of racial phenomena within the civil rights community. As a consequence we know little about the impact of racial discrimination on commercial transactions between business firms. Laws do not prohibit racial discrimination in transactions between business firms, and the disparity in business revenues between racial minorities and the white mainstream dwarf disparities in income by orders of magnitude. This disparity in business revenues is a major factor in the persistence …

Down The Rabbit Hole: The Madness Of State Film Incentives As As "Solution" To Runaway Production, Adrian H. Mcdonald

Adrian H. McDonald

This working paper is a "sequel" to my first law review article on runaway productions called "Through the Looking Glass": Runaway Productions and "Hollywood Economics," published in The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law in August 2007.

Since 2007, there has been a race to the bottom as virtually every state has enacted significant, if not detrimentally generous, tax incentives to lure film and television production. The efficacy of these incentives is evaluated at length, with particular attention paid to the origin and implementation of tax incentives in California, Massachusetts and Louisiana - states with colorful backgrounds …

Down The Rabbit Hole: The Madness Of State Film Incentives As As "Solution" To Runaway Production, Adrian H. Mcdonald

Adrian H. McDonald

This working paper is a "sequel" to my first law review article on runaway productions called "Through the Looking Glass": Runaway Productions and "Hollywood Economics," published in The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law in August 2007.

Since 2007, there has been a race to the bottom as virtually every state has enacted significant, if not detrimentally generous, tax incentives to lure film and television production. The efficacy of these incentives is evaluated at length, with particular attention paid to the origin and implementation of tax incentives in California, Massachusetts and Louisiana - states with colorful backgrounds …

The True Cost Of Economic Rights Jurisprudence, Max Mccann

Max McCann

This Article discusses the distinction between economic and individual rights in contemporary political and legal discourse. As discussed herein, the phrase economic rights typically invokes notions of the ability to spend, save, and transfer wealth freely, as well as other related issues, such as the deregulation of industry and tax reform. In contrast, individual rights conjures ideas of being free in one’s person, including reproductive rights, free speech, and freedom of assembly.

With both historic and recent examples, this Article argues that the distinction between economic and individual rights is problematic at best. Rights spring forth from human interests, and …

Testing The Purchasing Power Parity Between The Hashemite Kingdom Of Jordan And Its Major Trading Partners, Anwar Salameh Gasaymeh

Anwar Salameh Gasaymeh

TESTING THE PURCHASING POWER PARITY BETWEEN THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN AND ITS MAJOR TRADING PARTNERS Anwar Salameh Gasaymeh*, Lee Chin and M. Azali Department of Economics, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia Abstract This study examines the validity of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and investigates the market integration between The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its major trading partners namely, Japan, United Kingdom, Tunisia, Morocco, Switzerland, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan and Iran. Unit root tests, Johansen cointegration test and vector error correction model (VECM) were employed to test the data covering the period of 1990Q1-2006Q4. …

Criminal Insider Trading: Prosecution, Legislation, And Justification, Steven Brody

Steven Brody

Since the passage of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, insider trading has been codified as a federal crime. For many years, however, civil cases were rare, and criminal prosecutions resulting in prison terms were nearly unheard of. Yet during the 1980’s, white collar crime—and insider trading in particular—became the subject of more public scrutiny than it had ever previously received. During this period, major developments occurred in the criminalization, prosecution, and sentencing of those who had committed securities fraud. High profile cases of inside traders like Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine made targets of federal prosecutions household names and …

Vietnam's Eligibility To Receive Trade Benefits Under The U.S. Generalized System Of Preferences, Alexander H. Tuzin

Alexander H. Tuzin

Last year, Vietnam officially requested to receive trade benefits under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) as a beneficiary developing country. The accompanying article initially examines the role of GSP programs within the WTO system, and then provides a comprehensive analysis of Vietnam’s prospects for receiving trade benefits under the U.S. GSP system. Vietnam remains a very poor country, and it could benefit considerably from preferential treatment under the U.S. GSP program. However, Vietnam’s compliance with the GSP eligibility criteria is problematic. In particular, Vietnam’s protections for both intellectual property rights and worker rights are inadequate. Ultimately, this article …

How Do Local-Level Legal Institutions Promote Development?, Varun Gauri

Varun Gauri

This paper develops a framework and some hypotheses regarding the impact of local-level, informal legal institutions on three economic outcomes: aggregate growth, inequality, and human capabilities. It presents a set of stylized differences between formal and informal legal justice systems, identifies the pathways through which formal systems promote economic outcomes, reflects on what the stylized differences mean for the potential impact of informal legal institutions on economic outcomes, and looks at extant case studies to examine the plausibility of the arguments presented. The paper concludes that local-level, informal legal institutions can support social substitutes for the enforcement of contracts, though …

Implications Of Reputation Economics Of Regulatory Reform Of The Credit Rating Industry, Paul Lasell Bonewitz

Paul Lasell Bonewitz

Credit rating agencies have for years maintained that they would never intentionally issue or maintain inaccurate ratings due to the damage their reputation, and therefore their business, would suffer as a result. The reputation of credit rating agencies perhaps never suffered more than when thousands of structured debt securities proved to hold inflated ratings in the run-up to the credit crisis. Yet credit rating agencies remain as engrained as ever in the global financial system. What is more, Congressional testimony shows that credit rating agencies had the ability to rate more accurately than they did, but intentionally failed to do …

21st Century Trade Agreements: Implications For Development Sovereignty, Rachel D. Thrasher, Kevin P. Gallagher

Rachel D Thrasher

This paper examines the extent to which the emerging world trading regime leaves nations the “policy space” to deploy effective policy for long-run diversification and development and the extent to which there is a convergence of such policy space under global and regional trade regimes. We examine the economic theory of trade and long-run growth and underscore the fact that traditional theories lose luster in the presence of the need for long-run dynamic comparative advantages and when market failures are rife. We then review a “toolbox” of policies that have been deployed by developed and developing countries past and present …

African Regional Trade Agreements As Flexible Legal Regimes, James Thuo Gathii

James Thuo Gathii

Based on the types of treaty commitments contained in African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and how these RTAs are understood by their members, this article argues these RTAs are flexible legal regimes. Flexibility here refers to the following defining features of African RTAs. First, these RTAs are regarded as establishing flexible regimes of cooperation as opposed to containing rules requiring scrupulous and rigorous adherence. Second, African RTAs incorporate as a central feature the principle of variable geometry according to which different speeds towards meeting time tabled and other commitments are adopted. Third, African RTAs adopt a broad array of social, …

Licensing Complementary Patents: ‘Patent Trolls’, Market Structure, And ‘Excessive’ Royalties, Anne S. Layne-Farrar, Klaus Schmidt

Anne S. Layne-Farrar

The infamous Blackberry case brought new attention to so-called “patent trolls” and began the general association of trolls with “non-practicing” patent holders. This has had important legal consequences: Namely, patent holders have been denied injunctive relief because they did not practice the patents themselves. In this paper we analyze how patent holders –– both non-practicing and vertically integrated –– choose their royalties depending on the structure of the upstream and downstream markets and the types of licensing agreements available. We show that a vertically integrated firm has an incentive to raise its rivals’ costs and to restrict entry on the …

Commerical Logic And The Doha Round: Will Pope's Encyclical Letter Impact Global Trade And Development Planning, Karen A. O'Rourke

Karen A. O'Rourke

Abstract: Relying on the Church’s principles of social doctrine , the Encyclical Letter released June29,2009, underscore the needed policy focus to create new forms of engagement both at the level of international “private” economics and at the level of private -public partnerships that support international commerce and development. Emphasis is placed on the broad concepts of authentic human development within a new context of a fully humane global economy where forms of future commercial enterprise can be based on reciprocity and where commercial logic and the current notions of economic utility are not opposed to new forms of economic democracy. …

Myths About Mutual Fund Fees: Economic Insights On Jones V. Harris, D. Bruce Johnsen

D. Bruce Johnsen

Mutual funds stand ready at all times to sell and redeem common stock to the investing public for the net value of their assets under management. In the language of transaction cost economics, they are open-access common pools subject to virtually free investor entry and exit. The Investment Company Act (1940) requires mutual funds to be managed by an outside advisory firm pursuant to a written contract, which normally pays the adviser a small share of net asset value, say, one-half of one percent per year. Following 1970 amendments to the Investment Company Act imposing a fiduciary duty on advisers …

September 11th, John Maynard Keynes, Kenneth J. Arrow, And Me: The Nexus, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins, Ph.D.

African Regional Trade Agreements As Flexible Legal Regimes, James Thuo Gathii

James Thuo Gathii

Based on the types of treaty commitments contained in African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and how these RTAs are understood by their members, this article argues these RTAs are flexible legal regimes. Flexibility here refers to the following defining features of African RTAs. First, these RTAs are regarded as establishing flexible regimes of cooperation as opposed to containing rules requiring scrupulous and rigorous adherence. Second, African RTAs incorporate as a central feature the principle of variable geometry according to which different speeds towards meeting time tabled and other commitments are adopted. Third, African RTAs adopt a broad array of social, …

Tying, Price Discrimination And Antitrust Policy, Herbert Hovenkamp

Herbert Hovenkamp

ABSTRACT

A tying arrangement is a seller’s requirement that a customer may purchase its “tying” product only by taking its “tied” product. In a variable proportion tie the purchaser can vary her purchases of the tied product. For example, a customer might purchase a single printer, but either a contract or technological design requires her to purchase varying numbers of printer cartridges from the same manufacturer. Such arrangements are widely considered to be price discrimination devices, but their economic effects have been controversial.

Price discrimination comes in various “degrees.” In third degree price discrimination the seller isolates two or more …

Does The Nba Still Have Market Power? Exploring The Implications Of An Increasingly Global Market For Men's Basketball Player Labor, Marc Edelman

Marc L Edelman

In the March 2002 case Fraser v. Major League Soccer, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury’s finding that America’s twelve Major League Soccer clubs (“MLS”) compete in an international market for men’s professional soccer labor. The court then held that the MLS clubs do not have enough market power to collude illegally under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. At the time when Fraser was decided, few believed the case would become relevant to America’s other professional sports leagues. Indeed, at that time, most other American sports clubs did not compete with foreign clubs for premier men’s …

The Unnatural Disaster: Who Will Pay For The Next Major Hurricane, Bradley Bodiford

Bradley G. Bodiford

Since Hurricane Katrina, most state’s hurricane insurance programs have become increasingly political in an effort to control rapidly rising insurance rates. These legislative efforts often create their desired short-term effects, but only at the expense of harming millions of insurance customers in the long-term. Florida provides a perfect laboratory for examining the current crisis with its heavy coastal population and high vulnerability to hurricanes. By using a case study of a state with a more conservative hurricane insurance system, the article attempts to bridge the gap between the current system and the self-sustaining system. Specifically, the article proposes a glide …

African Regional Trade Agreements As Flexible Legal Regimes, James Thuo Gathii

James Thuo Gathii

Based on the types of treaty commitments contained in African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and how these RTAs are understood by their members, this article argues these RTAs are flexible legal regimes. Flexibility here refers to the following defining features of African RTAs. First, these RTAs are regarded as establishing flexible regimes of cooperation as opposed to containing rules requiring scrupulous and rigorous adherence. Second, African RTAs incorporate as a central feature the principle of variable geometry according to which different speeds towards meeting time tabled and other commitments are adopted. Third, African RTAs adopt a broad array of social, …

Thwack!! Take That, User-Generated Content!: Marvel Enterprises, Inc. V. Ncsoft Corp., Carl M. Szabo

Carl M Szabo

Dear Madam or Sir: As seen in the attached note, I am to make two contributions. First, I address the issue of copyright liability of websites for infringement by the website users. A constant struggle as old as the constitution itself, the issue of copyright protection now makes its way into the virtual world of the internet. While the issue of copyright liability has been seen in hundreds of comments and notes from courts and attorneys alike, the issue of copyright liability on the internet remains an open question that if not addressed could endanger the protection afforded to authors …

The Future Of Harmonization: Soft Law Instruments And The Principled Advance Of International Lawmaking, Robert A. Pate

Robert A Pate

With vast amounts of financial and intellectual capital already being spent on international harmonization, inefficiencies infecting the lawmaking process render it ineffective and threaten the goodwill of the whole enterprise. This paper represents a synthesis of some of the most meaningful criticism about the perceived failures of the classic vehicle for harmonization—international conventions. In it, we have highlighted these failures, looked for their underlying causes, and searched for compelling soft law alternatives. This paper seeks to show that, above all, conventions suffer from over ambition. By intervening in the legal marketplace, underestimating national distrust and legal conflict, and insisting on …

The Illegal Actions Of The Federal Reserve: An Analysis Of How The Nation’S Central Bank Has Acted Outside The Law In Responding To The Current Financial Crisis, Chad Emerson

Chad Emerson

Abstract

The Illegal Actions of the Federal Reserve:

An Analysis of How the Nation’s Central Bank Has Acted Outside the Law in Responding to the Current Financial Crisis

In the Spring of 2008, the United States Federal Reserve Bank, under the Chairmanship of Ben Bernanke, took emergency measures in an attempt to forestall a national, if not international, economic meltdown. The actual effectiveness of these unprecedented measures has been hotly-debated. Unfortunately, regardless of their efficacy, the Federal Reserve acted outside the scope of its legal authority in taking several of these actions.

This essay will analyze how the Federal Reserve …

Harmonization Of International Legal Structure For Fostering Professional Services: Lessons From Early U.S. Federal-State Relations, Deth Sao

Deth Sao

In the current global marketplace, liberalization of trade in professional services (“services”) presents one of the biggest challenges and profitable opportunities for the international community. Changes in technology and state privatization polices over the past half century have made services the fastest growing sector in international trade. Despite such a transformation, the potential for further innovation and expansion in the services industries is in jeopardy. In response to public policy and regulatory concerns and political pressures to protect domestic jobs and industries, states have adopted a plethora of state-initiated discriminatory and restrictive policies against trade in services. Because existing international …

Is It Too Easy Being Green? A Behavioral Economics Approach To Determining Whether To Regulate Environmental Marketing Claims, Jeffrey J. Minneti

Jeffrey J Minneti

Employing principles derived from rational choice theory and behavioral economics, the article advocates the promulgation of administrative rules to govern the environmental claims sellers make about their products. The article asserts that the FTC’s current regulatory scheme, a case-by-case approach that draws upon a set of industry guidelines (called the Green Guides), is essentially impotent when considered in light of the frequency with which products in today’s market bear false or misleading environmental claims. The article is especially timely now, because the FTC is currently engaged in its own evaluation of the Green Guides’ effectiveness. While traditional rational choice theorists …

Copyright After Death, Deven R. Desai

Deven R. Desai

Should copyright extend after death? In the United States, the duration of copyright is the author’s life plus seventy years. Discussions of copyright often treat pre and post death copyright as equal, holding that the entire length of the term faces uniform problems and fulfills uniform goals. Copyright law operates with a hidden assumption: that copyright after death is the same as copyright during life. Numerous debates over copyright’s duration rely on this post-mortem assumption. In this article, Professor Deven Desai argues that this assumption is false and that copyright’s extension after the author’s death is unjustifiable. He explores the …

Lessons For Social Scientists And Politicians: An Analysis Of Welfare Reform, Jasmin Sethi

Jasmin Sethi

Despite soaring unemployment and the worst economic crisis in decades, 18 states cut their welfare rolls last year, and nationally the number of people receiving cash assistance remained at or near the lowest in more than 40 years. Escalating unemployment coupled with the impending expiration of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in 2010, will bring renewed attention to welfare reform. This Article examines the effects of President Clinton’s Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 and in particular, evaluates how social science interacted with politics to culminate in the enactment of the PRWORA. It explicates several …

Lessons For Social Scientists And Politicians: An Analysis Of Welfare Reform, Jasmin Sethi

Jasmin Sethi

Despite soaring unemployment and the worst economic crisis in decades, 18 states cut their welfare rolls last year, and nationally the number of people receiving cash assistance remained at or near the lowest in more than 40 years. Escalating unemployment coupled with the impending expiration of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in 2010, will bring renewed attention to welfare reform. This Article examines the effects of President Clinton’s Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 and in particular, evaluates how social science interacted with politics to culminate in the enactment of the PRWORA. It explicates several …