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Full-Text Articles in Law and Economics
Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert Hockett, Saule Omarova
Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert Hockett, Saule Omarova
Saule T. Omarova
The recent financial crisis brought into sharp relief fundamental questions about the social function and purpose of the financial system, including its relation to the “real” economy. This Article argues that, to answer these questions, we must recapture a distinctively American view of the proper relations among state, financial market, and development. This programmatic vision – captured in what we call a “developmental finance state” – is based on three key propositions: (1) that economic and social development is not an “end-state” but a continuing national policy priority; (2) that the modalities of finance are the most potent means of …
Cleaning The Muck Of Ages From The Windows Into The Soul Of Income Tax, John Passant
Cleaning The Muck Of Ages From The Windows Into The Soul Of Income Tax, John Passant
John Passant
The aim of this paper is to provide readers with an insight into Marx’s methods as a first step to understanding income tax more generally but with specific reference to Australia’s income tax system. I do this by introducing readers to the ideas about the totality that is capitalism, appearance and form, and the dialectic in Marx’s hands. This will involve looking at income tax as part of the bigger picture of capitalism, and understanding that all things are related and changes in one produce changes in all. Appearances can be deceptive and we need to delve below the surface …
Law In Regression? Impacts Of Quantitative Research On Law And Regulation, David C. Donald
Law In Regression? Impacts Of Quantitative Research On Law And Regulation, David C. Donald
David C. Donald
Quantitative research (QR) has undeniably improved the quality of law- and rulemaking, but it can also present risks for these activities. On the one hand, replacing anecdotal assertions regarding behavior or the effects of rules in an area to be regulated with objective, statistical evidence has advanced the quality of regulatory discourse. On the other hand, because the construction of such evidence often depends on bringing the complex realities of both human behavior and rules designed to govern it into simple, quantified variables, QR findings can at times camouflage complexity, masking real problems. Deceptively objective findings can in this way …
Taking Distribution Seriously, Robert C. Hockett
Taking Distribution Seriously, Robert C. Hockett
Robert C. Hockett
It is common for legal theorists and policy analysts to think and communicate mainly in maximizing terms. What is less common is for them to notice that each time we speak explicitly of socially maximizing one thing, we speak implicitly of distributing another thing and equalizing yet another thing. We also, moreover, effectively define ourselves and our fellow citizens by reference to that which we equalize; for it is in virtue of the latter that our social welfare formulations treat us as “counting” for purposes of socially aggregating and maximizing. To attend systematically to the inter-translatability of maximization language on …
Minding The Gaps: Fairness, Welfare, And The Constitutive Structure Of Distributive Assessment, Robert C. Hockett
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 Impossibility Of A Prescriptive Paretian, Robert C. Hockett
The Impossibility Of A Prescriptive Paretian, Robert C. Hockett
Robert C. Hockett
Most normatively oriented economists appear to be “welfarist” and Paretian to one degree or another: They deem responsiveness to individual preferences, and satisfaction of one or more of the Pareto criteria, to be a desirable attribute of any social welfare function. I show that no strictly “welfarist” or Paretian social welfare function can be normatively prescriptive. Economists who prescribe must embrace at least one value apart from or additional to “welfarism” and Paretianism, and in fact will do best to dispense with Pareto entirely.
Explaining The Importance Of Public Choice For Law, D. Daniel Sokol
Explaining The Importance Of Public Choice For Law, D. Daniel Sokol
D. Daniel Sokol
The next generation of government officials, business leaders and members of civil society likely will draw from the current pool of law school students. These students often lack a foundation of the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to understand law's interplay with government. This highlights the importance of public choice analysis. By framing issues through a public choice lens, these students will learn the dynamics of effective decision-making within various institutional settings. Filling the void of how to explain the decision-making process of institutional actors in legal settings is Public Choice Concepts and Applications in Law by Maxwell Stearns and …
Corporate Social Responsibility In A Remedy-Seeking Society: A Public Choice Perspective, Donald J. Kochan
Corporate Social Responsibility In A Remedy-Seeking Society: A Public Choice Perspective, Donald J. Kochan
Donald J. Kochan
Written for the Chapman Law Review Symposium on “What Can Law & Economics Teach Us About the Corporate Social Responsibility Debate?,” this Article applies the lessons of public choice theory to examine corporate social responsibility. The Article adopts a broad definition of corporate social responsibility activism to include both (1) those efforts that seek to convince corporations to voluntarily take into account corporate social responsibility in their own decision-making, and (2) the efforts to alter the legal landscape and expand legal obligations of corporations beyond traditional notions of harm and duty so as to force corporations to invest in interests …
The Legitimacy Of Crimmigration Law, Juliet P. Stumpf
The Legitimacy Of Crimmigration Law, Juliet P. Stumpf
Juliet P Stumpf
Crimmigration law—the intersection of immigration and criminal law—with its emphasis on immigration enforcement, has been hailed as the lynchpin for successful political compromise on immigration reform. Yet crimmigration law’s unprecedented approach to interior immigration and criminal law enforcement threatens to undermine public belief in the fairness of immigration law. This Article uses pioneering social science research to explore people’s perceptions of the legitimacy of crimmigration law. According to Tom Tyler and other compliance scholars, perceptions about procedural justice—whether people perceive authorities as acting fairly—are often more important than a favorable outcome such as winning the case or avoiding arrest. Legal …
Licensure Of Health Care Professionals: The Consumer's Case For Abolition, Charles H. Baron
Licensure Of Health Care Professionals: The Consumer's Case For Abolition, Charles H. Baron
Charles H. Baron
While state medical licensure laws ostensibly are intended to promote worthwhile goals, such as the maintenance of high standards in health care delivery, this Article argues that these laws in practice are detrimental to consumers. The Article takes the position that licensure contributes to high medical care costs and stifles competition, innovation and consumer autonomy. It concludes that delicensure would expand the range of health services available to consumers and reduce patient dependency, and that these developments would tend to make medical practice more satisfying to consumers and providers of health care services.
The Rise Of Planning In Industrial America, 1865-1914
The Rise Of Planning In Industrial America, 1865-1914
Richard Adelstein
How American firms grew very large after the Civil War, and how Americans responded to them.
Firms As Social Actors, Richard Adelstein
Firms As Social Actors, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A close look at what firms are and how they act.
Organizations And Economics, Richard Adelstein
Organizations And Economics, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A contribution to a symposium on a paper by Richard Posner.
Behavioral Public Finance, Edward J. Mccaffery
Behavioral Public Finance, Edward J. Mccaffery
Edward J McCaffery
These are slides from a presentation to the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, Squaw Valley Conference, May, 2008 (at which event Michael Jensen got me to agree to post these slides as a pdf on SSRN . . . ). The task is to give an overview of what I hope to be an emerging field of behavioral public finance. Behavioral finance, as per Barberis and Thaler 2003 (and others), consists of two parts: (1) individual level heuristics and biases, which can lead to sub-optimal (inconsistent) judgment and decision-making, and (2) institutional arbitrage mechanisms. In private finance and …
Comments On Liebman And Zeckhauser, Simple Humans, Complex Insurance, Subtle Subsidies, Edward J. Mccaffery
Comments On Liebman And Zeckhauser, Simple Humans, Complex Insurance, Subtle Subsidies, Edward J. Mccaffery
Edward J McCaffery
These are brief comments on an excellent paper by Jeffrey Liebman and Richard Zeckhauser, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Urban Institute and Brookings on tax and health care policy. Liebman and Zeckhauser summarize the complexities involved in making optimal health insurance decisions, and offer generally cautionary notes about conflating these with tax law (a theme of the conference). Most importantly, Liebman and Zeckhauser suggest a positive role for employers in health care and insurance decisions, as better setters or framers of choice sets—witness 401(k) plans. In this Commentary, I applaud Leibman and Zeckhauser’s general work and particular observation, …
Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow
Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow
Donald J. Kochan
Conflicts created by concurrences and pluralities in court decisions create confusion in law and lower court interpretation. Rule of law values require that individuals be able to identify controlling legal principles. That task is complicated when pluralities and concurrences contribute to the vagueness or uncertainty that leaves us wondering what the controlling rule is or attempting to predict what it will evolve to become. The rule of law is at least handicapped when continuity or confidence or confusion infuse our understanding of the applicable rules. This Article uses the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. United States to …
Economics Of Plea Bargaining, Richard Adelstein
Economics Of Plea Bargaining, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A short summary of earlier work for a sociological audience.
An Economic Model Of Fair Use (With Thomas Miceli), Richard Adelstein
An Economic Model Of Fair Use (With Thomas Miceli), Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A formal model of the law of fair use.
Knowledge And Power In The Mechanical Firm: Planning For Profit In Austrian Perspective, Richard Adelstein
Knowledge And Power In The Mechanical Firm: Planning For Profit In Austrian Perspective, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A theory of central planning employing Austrian themes and applied to private firms and Taylorism.
Equity And Efficiency In Markets For Ideas, Richard Adelstein
Equity And Efficiency In Markets For Ideas, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
Intellectual property and patent protection in light of the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Toward A Comparative Economics Of Plea Bargaining (With Thomas Miceli), Richard Adelstein
Toward A Comparative Economics Of Plea Bargaining (With Thomas Miceli), Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A comparison of adversarial and inquisitorial approaches to criminal adjudication and its implications for plea bargaining.
Victims As Cost Bearers, Richard Adelstein
Victims As Cost Bearers, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A brief recasting of the price exaction model.
Four Entries, Richard Adelstein
Four Entries, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
Four entries: "American Institutional Economics and the Legal System" (I: 61-66); "John Rogers Commons" (I: 324-327); Richard Theodore Ely" (II: 28-29); and "Plea Bargaining: A Comparative Approach"
Deciding For Bigness, Richard Adelstein
Deciding For Bigness, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
Antitrust as a constitutional constraint on the growth of firms.
The Competition Of Technologies In Markets For Ideas: Copyright And Fair Use In Evolutionary Perspective (With Steven Peretz), Richard Adelstein
The Competition Of Technologies In Markets For Ideas: Copyright And Fair Use In Evolutionary Perspective (With Steven Peretz), Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A theory of intellectual goods as distinct from public or private goods, and the rationale for copyright that flows from it.
The Plea Bargain In England And America: A Comparative Institutional Approach, Richard Adelstein
The Plea Bargain In England And America: A Comparative Institutional Approach, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A comparative view of adjudication by guilty plea in the US and the UK.
Institutional Function And Evolution In The Criminal Process, Richard Adelstein
Institutional Function And Evolution In The Criminal Process, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
An extended development of the foundations of the price exaction model of the criminal process.
The Moral Costs Of Crime: Prices, Information And Organization, Richard Adelstein
The Moral Costs Of Crime: Prices, Information And Organization, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
More on price exaction, and punishments as conveyors of cost information in the criminal process.
Informational Paradox And The Pricing Of Crime: Capital Sentencing Standards In Economic Perspective, Richard Adelstein
Informational Paradox And The Pricing Of Crime: Capital Sentencing Standards In Economic Perspective, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
A further development of the price exaction model and an application to the problem of sentencing standards.
The Negotiated Guilty Plea: A Framework For Analysis, Richard Adelstein
The Negotiated Guilty Plea: A Framework For Analysis, Richard Adelstein
Richard Adelstein
An early exposition of the price exaction framework and the place of plea bargaining in it.