Law and Economics Commons^™

The Ancient Roots Of Modern Financial Innovation: The Early History Of Regulatory Arbitrage, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have seen an explosion of financial innovation. Much of this innovation seeks to exploit inconsistencies in the regulatory environment, and one of the most popular techniques for doing so uses put-call parity. Nonetheless, regulatory arbitrage using put-call parity is not a new phenomenon, as is frequently suggested. This Essay traces the use of put-call parity to avoid the usury prohibition back to Ancient Israel. It also describes the important role that put-call parity played in developing the equity of redemption, the defining characteristic of a modern mortgage, in Medieval England. In addition, this Essay describes how Muslims living …

The Debt Dilemma, Katherine Porter

Michigan Law Review

Part I describes the nature of credit card spending and explores the usefulness of Mann's comparative approach to studying credit cards. Part II evaluates Mann's findings on the overall relationships between individual credit card transactions and aggregate levels of spending, borrowing, and bankruptcy. It also briefly analyzes the relationship between his findings and policy recommendations. Part III explores data on families who refrain from credit card use and struggle with serious financial distress. Part IV revisits Mann's policy recommendations in light of this new data. I conclude that implementing credit card reform would offer families only partial, albeit valuable, protection …

Private Equity's Three Lessons For Agency Theory, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Managerial Turn In Environmental Policy, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Innovation And The Domain Of Competition Policy, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust policy and the IP laws are both concerned with practices that restrain competition unnecessarily by reducing the size of the public domain beyond that which the Constitution contemplates, or as Congress intended for them to be expanded. In fact, antitrust has a dual role as promoter of competition in IP intensive markets. It regulates both restraints on competition and restraints on innovation. The first line protector of the competitive process in innovation is the IP statutes themselves. The Constitutional Mandate to Congress to create intellectual property regimes in order to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts is …

Exclusionary Bundled Discounts And The Antitrust Modernization Commission, Erik Hovenkamp, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

A bundled discount occurs when a seller charges less for a bundle of goods than for its components when sold separately. A characteristic of such discounting is that a rival who makes only one of the products in the bundle may have to give a larger per item discount in order to compensate the buyer for the foregone discount on goods that the rival does not sell. For example, if I sell A and B and offer a 20% discount only to customers who purchase one A and one B together, a rival in the B market might be able …

Competing For Capital: The Diffusion Of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 1960-2000, Zachary Elkins, Andrew T. Guzman, Beth A. Simmons

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the past forty-five years, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have become the most important international legal mechanism for the encouragement and governance of foreign direct investment. Their proliferation over the past two decades in particular has been phenomenal. These intergovernmental treaties typically grant extensive rights to foreign investors, including protection of contractual rights and the right to international arbitration in the event of an investment dispute. How can we explain the diffusion of BITs? We argue that the spread of BITs is driven by international competition among potential host countries - typically developing countries - for foreign direct investment. We …

Do Patents Perform Like Property?, Michael J. Meurer, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Do patents provide critical incentives to encourage investment in innovation? Or, instead, do patents impose legal risks and burdens on innovators that discourage innovation, as some critics now claim? This paper reviews empirical economic evidence on how well patents perform as a property system.

How Law Constructs Wealth Patterns [Panel Remarks], Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Defending Stakeholder Governance, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Corporations are collective enterprises, drawing on investments from various stakeholders who contribute to the firm's success. For a business to succeed over time, it must induce people and institutions to invest money, whether in the form of equity or loans. It must induce people to invest their labor, intelligence, skill, and attention by joining the firm as employees or managers. It must induce local communities to invest infrastructure of various kinds. None of these investors-for investors they all are-contributes its input out of altruism or obligation. They all do so because they believe that the corporation provides the mechanism for …

Christians In The American Empire: Faith And Citizenship In The New World Order, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American …

Progressive Era, Richard Adelstein

Richard Adelstein

A short interpretive summary of the period 1890 - 1914.

Estate Acts, 1600 To 1830: A New Source For British History, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

A new database demonstrates that between 1600 and 1830, Parliament passed thousands of acts restructuring rights to real and equitable estates. These estate acts enabled individuals and families to sell, mortgage, lease, exchange, and improve land previously bound by landholding and inheritance laws. This essay provides a factual foundation for research on this important topic: the law and economics of property rights during the period preceding the Industrial Revolution. Tables present time-series, cross-sectional, and panel data that should serve as a foundation for empirical analysis. Preliminary analysis indicates ways in which this new evidence may shape our understanding of British …

El Sistema De Solución De Controversias Entre Estados, Pierino Stucchi, Luis García-Corrochano

Pierino Stucchi

No abstract provided.

Incentive Effect Of Liability Rules In The Presence Of Liability Insurance In The Maritime Law Context: An Economic Analysis, Muhammad Masum Billah Dr.

Muhammad Masum Billah Dr.

Incentive effect of liability law may be affected by the presence of liability insurance. Apparently when a party has liability insurance and does not have to pay directly from its own pocket, it will have less motivation to exercise proper care. This tendency of an insured is known as “moral hazard.” There are many studies on the problem of “moral hazard” and on various mechanisms how to address it. Yet, there is a lack of academic discussion on comparative analysis between liability law and liability insurance in terms of their effect on creation of incentives; that is, whether liability law …

Guía De Las Decisiones Del Pjf En Materia De Competencia Económica Como Generar Una Cultura De La Competencia, Ana E. Fierro Ferraez, Adriana García García

Ana E. Fierro Ferraez

Since the creation of the Federal Commission of Economic Competition, the free trade right, established in article 28 of the Mexican Constitution, has become a constitutional right. It´s defense corresponds to the Federal Judiciary that has become a big challenge, how to guarantee the conditions of a free market so Mexicans can exercise their right to free trade? The present document, through the analysis of the relevant resolutions of the Court about free trade in the last 10 years, as well as the main precedents, seeks to be a guide of the new issues on free trade in Mexico and …

Responsabilidade Civil Dos Robôs? Normas Sociais De Controle Dos Agentes Eletrônicos, Ivo T. Gico

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

Nesta contribuição, discute-se que, mesmo em ambientes cibernéticos, o Direito imposto surge como uma necessidade natural de sistemas sociais complexos.

O surgimento efetivo de robôs e a expansão dos agentes eletrônicos principalmente na Internet impuseram a auto-regulação por normas costumeiras, ontologicamente de adesão espontânea (não cogentes, portanto).

Com o crescimento da rede e a absoluta impessoalidade que agora reina, esse tipo de regramento é simplesmente ineficaz, cabendo ao o Direito positivo delimitar os parâmetros para que a rede evolua e cresça em importância.

In this contribution, the author discusses that, even in cyber environments, tax law emerges as a natural …

Trying To Vote In Good Conscience, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

This Article analyses the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ statement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States, and how it addresses the economic and environmental issues raised during the 2008 Presidential election.

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 …

O Que É Direito E Economia?, Bruno Meyerhof Salama

Bruno Meyerhof Salama

No abstract provided.

Decrecimiento Poblacional En China Durante La Época Del Gran Salto Adelante, Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

No abstract provided.

De Lo Privado Y Lo Comunitario En La Época Yayoi, Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

No abstract provided.

El Prejuicio Conflictual En El "Choque De Civilizaciones", Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

Fernando Villaseñor Rodríguez

No abstract provided.

Analytical Thomism: Traditions In Dialogue, Mario Šilar

Mario Šilar

No abstract provided.

The Anticommons And The Problem Of Numerus Clausus Of Property Rights, Enrico Baffi

enrico baffi

In the academic literature there the idea that revolutionary French lawmakers wanted to encourage the circulation of goods by limiting the possibility of creating property rights, thus reacting to the risk that the high transaction costs necessary to make several people reach an agreement would compromise the transfer of goods to a different use (and to a different owner). The so-called "theory of the anticommons" is the legal and economic development of this idea. But law and economics in recent years have led to the identification of further explanations, in terms of economic efficiency, of the principle of the numerus …

The Developer’S Decision Calculus: An Agent-Based Model Of Commercial Development, Mirya R. Holman, Travis Coan

Mirya R Holman

While considerable research has been devoted to understanding the impact local regulatory environments on housing development, few studies have examined the implications of land-use regulations for commercial development. The paucity of studies is unfortunate given that commercial development often provides municipalities with considerable economic benefits (e.g., employment) and a crucial source of tax revenue. This study presents a formal model of the commercial development process that explicitly incorporates the dynamic interaction of commercial developers and local cities. Specifically, we construct an agent-based model (ABM) of the commercial development process that represents some key features of the development process. We form …