Law and Economics Commons^™

Brand Or Anti-Brand?, Stacey Dogan

Shorter Faculty Works

How many law review articles begin with a scene from Wayne’s World? For Sonia Katyal, such an opening is par for the course. Since she entered the scene a decade ago, Katyal’s scholarship has celebrated irreverence, and examined the ways in which the law tolerates, enables, and often discourages commentary on dominant culture, icons, and in this case, brands. This essay – written for a symposium on advertising and the law at SUNY Buffalo Law School – continues the Katyal tradition.

The Distortionary Effect Of Evidence On Primary Behavior, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Digital Communications Research And Policy, Scott Wallsten

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

Cheaters Shouldn't Prosper And Consumers Shouldn't Suffer: The Need For Government Enforcement Against Economic Adulteration Of 100% Pomegranate Juice And Other Imported Food Products, Michael T. Roberts

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In the modern global food system - marked by the trade flow of a variety of food products and ingredients from multiple locations in the world - economically motivated adulteration has emerged as a growing menace that threatens the health and wellbeing of consumers, the economic livelihoods of honest purveyors of food in the global marketplace, and the integrity and viability of national food regulatory systems. Economic adulteration is a form of cheating that includes the padding, diluting, and substituting of food product. Although this cheating is rooted in past food systems, the new paradigm for economic adulteration - a …

European Union Food Law Update, Emilie H. Leibovitch

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This EU Food Law Update will focus on the recent developments in the areas of genetically modified organisms, novel foods, feed safety, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, salmonella and food borne diseases, food additives, organic farming, food contact materials, and labeling.

A Bittersweet Deal For Consumers: The Unnatural Application Of Preemption To High Fructose Corn Syrup Labeling Claims, Josh Ashley

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The recent rise of consumer consciousness regarding the health qualities of foods and beverages has become something akin to common knowledge. Reflecting this rise, studies reveal that labels regarding the health qualities of a food are more likely to increase sales. And among the health labels consumers prefer, labels describing the product as natural top the list. One website reports that according to a recent study, 31.3-percent of respondents thought that "100% natural" was the best description to read on a label, compared with only 14.2-percent who thought that "100% organic" was the best description. "All natural ingredients" was the …

United States Food Law Update: Health Care Reform, Preemption, Labeling Claims And Unpaid Interns: The Latest Battles In Food Law, A. Bryan Endres, Nicholas R. Johnson, Michaela N. Tarr

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This edition of the Food Law Update explores four legal issues arising in the first half of 2010 reflective of the diverse nature of the food law specialist. As the national debate surrounding the merits of health care reform dominated the legislative agenda, this article first will discuss the food labeling rules embedded within section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The authors then analyze the preemptive reach of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Meat Inspection Act with respect to three separate California statutes regarding animal welfare standards, retail labels on …

Produce Exceptionalism: Examining The Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement And Its Ability To Improve Food Safety, Varun Shekhar

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Isolated food safety crises are not uncommon occurrences in the United States. Indeed, the history of public scares indicates a pattern of deficiencies in the safety of the American food supply. In the early 20th century, the public learned of the squalid conditions of meatpacking facilities through muckraking publications such as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. In the 1980s, a 60 Minutes report documented research finding carcinogenic properties of a widespread pesticide, traces of which were commonly found in apple-based products. In the 1990s, widespread media reports of beef tainted with E. coli led to both product recalls unprecedented in scope …

Reconsidering Federalism And The Farm: Toward Including Local, State And Regional Voices In America's Food System, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Why is the relationship between our food system and federalism important to American law and health? It is important simply because federal law controls the American food system. This essay considers how federal law came to structure our food system, and suggests that though food is an essential part of our national economy, the dominating role of the federal government alienates citizens from their food system. It does so by characterizing food as a primarily economic issue, rather than one that has ethical, health, and cultural components. However, state and local governments have much to offer in terms of broadening …

The Visible Hand: Coordination Functions Of The Regulatory State, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

We live in a coordination economy. As one surveys the myriad challenges of modern social and economic life, an ever increasing proportion is defined not by the need to reconcile competing interests, but by the challenge of getting everyone on the same page. Conflict is not absent in these settings. It is not, however, the determinative factor in shaping our behaviors and resulting interactions. That essential ingredient, instead, is coordination.

Such coordination is commonly understood as the function of the market. As it turns out, however, optimal coordination will not always emerge, as if led “by an invisible hand.” Even …

Imperfect Alternatives: Networks, Salience, And Institutional Design In Financial Crises, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

With the benefit of hindsight — and some aspiration to foresight — it is useful to consider the type of regulatory regime that might best address financial crises. What could policymakers have done to prevent the recent crisis? And once the crisis started, what interventions might have alleviated it? These questions have been widely debated, with an eye to both substantive policy and the design of effective regulatory institutions. This Article speaks to the latter project — one of comparative institutional analysis — though with a framework that implicates our substantive policy choices as well. It begins with an account …

Policy Relevant Heterogeneity In The Value Of Statistical Life: New Evidence From Panel Data Quantile Regressions, W. Kip Viscusi, Thomas J. Kniesner, James P. Ziliak

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

We examine differences in the value of statistical life (VSL) across potential wage levels in panel data using quantile regressions with intercept heterogeneity. Latent heterogeneity is econometrically important and affects the estimated VSL. Our findings indicate that a reasonable average cost per expected life saved cut-off for health and safety regulations is $7 million to $8 million per life saved, but the VSL varies considerably across the labor force. Our results reconcile the previous discrepancies between hedonic VSL estimates and the values implied by theories linked to the coefficient of relative risk aversion. Because the VSL varies elastically with income, …

China's Development Of International Economic Law And Wto Legal Capacity Building, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines legal and institutional aspects of the evolution of China’s approach to the dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It begins by analyzing the impact of China’s changing attitude toward international law on the escalation of international economic law research. In particular, the article provides the first detailed examination of China’s efforts to strengthen public–private cooperation in building its WTO legal capacity. China established think tanks to bridge the information and communication gaps between the government and industries. To develop its WTO lawyers, the Chinese government has consistently required international law firms to collaborate with …

Reframing Antitrust In Light Of Scientific Revolution: Accounting For Transaction Costs In Rule Of Reason Analysis, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

This Article contends that modern rule of reason analysis, informed by workable competition’s partial equilibrium trade-off paradigm, is suitable for evaluating only a subset of agreements that may reduce transaction costs. The Article distinguishes between “technological” and “non-technological” transaction costs. Technological transaction costs entail the bargaining and information costs first emphasized by Ronald Coase, while non-technological transaction costs result from more fundamental departures from perfect competition, departures creating a risk of opportunism that accompanies relationship-specific investments. Modern law does accurately assess restraints that may reduce technological transaction costs—costs that are analogous to the sort of production costs recognized by the …

Stability, Integration And Political Modalities: Some American Reflections On The European Project After The Financial Crisis, David A. Westbrook

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 22 in Making Transnational Law Work in the Global Economy: Essays in Honour of Detlev Vagts, Pieter H. F. Bekker, Rudolf Dolzer & Michael Waibel, eds.

To those of us concerned with transnational law, and especially the role of German law on the global stage, it does not need saying that Professor Detlev Vagts is highly deserving of that Germanic and traditional scholarly honour, a Festchrift. (In this context, ‘does not need saying’ of course means ‘should be said repeatedly’.) We all owe Detlev Vagts, and as a Germanic traditionalist, I would be delighted to contribute to …

Rethinking Free Trade, Fernando L. Leila

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

This paper examines the present theories and shortcomings of current free trade policy, and the consequences thereof, which promote protectionist behavior among countries on an international scale. Theoretically, free trade should encourage progress within the global community. However, developing countries, with astonishing growth rates, like Brazil, China or India, have based their economies on opposing economic policies, closer to mercantilism than liberalization or free trade, allowing for poor countries to question whether free trade is the right way to improve their economies. Furthermore, a huge gap exists between what developed countries preach and what they practice, presenting a major obstacle …

Estimating The Costs Per Job Created Of Employer Subsidy Programs, Timothy J. Bartik

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Burger, Without Spies, Please: Notes From A Human Rights Researcher, Anna Valerie Dolidze

Cornell Law School J.S.D. Student Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Políticas Públicas Para Enfrentar Los Desafíos Proporcionados Por Las Rentas Económicas: El Caso Del Impuesto Específico A La Minería, Andrew Linville

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La economía chilena es fuertemente dependiente en la explotación y exportación de productos primarios y en sectores de recursos naturales, como los sectores minero, forestal, pesquero, y frutícola. El modelo de desarrollo emprendido por Chile en los últimos treinta años, uno de apertura unilateral y bilateral a flujos de bienes y capital, ha dado importancia especial a las políticas impositivas y reguladoras entorno a esos sectores. Sin embargo, la explotación de recursos naturales escasos proporciona un rango de desafíos únicos debido a la existencia de rentas económicas y los efectos de competencia, distribución y desarrollo regional que las acompañan. Mi …

Private And Public Construction In Modern China, Gregory M. Stein

San Diego International Law Journal

During the past three decades, real estate development in China has proceeded at an astonishing pace, with much development occurring before China's 2007 adoption of its first modern law of property. Investors thus spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the real estate market of a nation that, during most of this period, had not formal property law. How can a huge nation modernize so rapidly and dramatically when its legal system furnishes such uncertainty? And how can this happen in a nation that still purports to subscribe to socialist ideology? I set out to answer these questions by interviewing …

Providing Legal Certainty In South America: Can Mercosur Help?, Camilo A. Rodriguez Yong

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The presence of legal certainty within a country’s legal system is a very relevant factor in the foreign investor’s decision to invest in a particular country. It is therefore necessary for countries to develop mechanisms for avoiding or reducing the uncertainty over the law in their legal systems. This article studies the Southern Common Market’s (“MERCOSUR”) structure and function with the purpose of assessing it as a mechanism to offer legal certainty to foreign investors in the region. The analysis is carried out by examining three basic elements of this regional integrationist experience: a) its body of law, b) its …

Civil Judicial Subsidy, The, Brendan Maher

Faculty Articles and Papers

American society does not require civil litigants to bear the actual cost of using the court; those costs are borne almost entirely by the taxpayer (i.e., the “civil judicial subsidy”). In this Article I ask: is that right? Or is there a more desirable way to apportion court usage costs between the state and litigants? I develop an evaluative framework that facilitates analysis of the purpose, contours, and cost of the current judicial subsidy. We subsidize court use because, in theory, there are certain “social positives” associated with public adjudication. To date the unspoken assumption has been that these social …

The Regulation Of Inchoate Technologies, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In this Essay, I explain why and how certain technologies I refer to as "inchoate" defeat regulatory interventions. I examine the "law" of unintended consequences and the role of regulatory ideologies. I suggest that traditional policymaking models, when applied to inchoate technologies, do not adequately reflect the risk of regulatory failure, which is proportional to the level of inchoateness of the technology. I also consider whether the regulation of inchoate technologies should take into account that, and may in fact be undesirable because, some technologies (or the use thereof) tend to self-regulate. Finally, I suggest lessons that can be drawn …

Justice Sector Reform In Rwanda: A Space Of Contention Or Consensus?, Maria Sebastian

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Justice sector reform is an arena of competition, where international development partners and Rwandan government institutions introduce contending ideas of justice through different development projects. In this ensuing competition of influence, how do international players utilize their roles as development partners to affect the accepted standards within Rwandan courts through established systems of monitoring and evaluation? And moreover, how do individuals in the Rwandan government perceive these partners, projects, and indicators? This study aims to answer these questions through an in-depth literature review, an analysis of development projects in the justice sector, and finally semi-structured interviews with key individuals in …

Pennsylvania's Sales And Use Tax: Has Nearly $1 Billion Been 'Zapped' Away In Fraud?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The Sales and Use Tax is an essential part of Pennsylvania’s revenue profile. Not only is it the State’s second largest revenue source, it has historically played a critical role in reducing the volatility of Pennsylvania’s overall tax collections. The sales tax is also critical to the city of Philadelphia, and Allegheny County. During the current economic downturn both the revenue and structural attributes of this levy should be pushing it to the front of the tax policy line.

The two topics that should rest atop Pennsylvania’s tax policy agenda should be: (1) joining the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative and …

Max Weber On Property: An Effort In Interpretive Understanding, Laura R. Ford

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

This article reviews Max Weber’s scholarly work pertaining to property, beginning with his first dissertation and ending with the compilation that is Economy and Society. Three phases of Weber’s work are described in detail: a legal phase, an economic-historical phase, and a sociological phase. It is argued that the sociological phase represents the culmination of the two prior phases, drawing on material and arguments from those earlier phases. In the sociological phase of his writing, it is argued that Weber developed a theory of property that is capable of accounting for that phenomenon in all of its dimensions: structural, material, …

Breathing New Life Into Old Technological Infrastructure: Broadband Internet As A Means Of Jump-Starting The Economy And Connecting The Country, Elizabeth Chernow

Legislation and Policy Brief

This paper examines the current structure of universal service and the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, recent pushes to expand the definition of and funding for universal service to include broadband access, and how broadband internet can contribute to saving the ailing economy. This paper concludes by calling for the inclusion of broadband internet in the Universal Service Fund.

Rebuilding Distressed Regions: Problem Diagnosis And Tracking, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Vat Fraud - Technological Solutions, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Every VAT/GST allows missing trader fraud. The fraud is simple, and can be simply prevented (with technology). The fraud arises when a business makes a purchase without paying VAT, collects VAT on an onward sale, and then “disappears” without remitting the tax. Missing trader fraud is common in high-value/low-volume goods sold across borders – computer chips and cell phones are the classic examples. But the fraud easily migrates when pursued. It operates well with goods as wide ranging as xenon bulbs, automobiles, and earth moving equipment.

The recent appearance of MTIC fraud in tradable CO2 permits and VoIP is a …

State Fiscal Policies And Transitory Income Fluctuations, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

State and local expenditure and tax revenue respond less to the business cycle than do federal spending and revenue, thereby reducing the countercyclicality of total government expenditure and revenue. This paper considers forces responsible for the cyclical pattern of state expenditure and revenue. Annual fluctuations in state personal income are associated with small changes in state spending and significant changes in tax receipts; receipt of federal grants is associated with greater state spending. Tax collections, and to a lesser degree expenditure, of larger states are more closely associated with annual income fluctuations than are the tax collections and expenditure of …