Law and Economics Commons^™

Orderly Liquidation Authority: A New Insolvency Regime To Address Systemic Risk, Hollace T. Cohen

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mixed Agendas And Government Regulation Of Business: Can We Clean Up The Mess?, Thomas M. Arnold, Jerry L. Stevens

University of Richmond Law Review

The purpose of this article is first to navigate through variousperspectives on government regulation in an effort to develop areasonable and consistent view for regulatory proposals. Parts II and III of this article provide a brief outline of our current regulatory environment and its evolution. Part IV presents arguments for an efficient regulation of business by using market based regulation with a separation of efficiency and equity issues, where feasible. Examples of this regulatory approach appear throughout the article along with suggested reforms.

Law And Neoclassical Economic Development In Theory And Practice: Toward An Institutionalist Critique Of Institutionalism, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Institutionalism propounds a particular set of theoretical assumptions about the role of law in economic growth. In unpacking the development of those assumptions, this Essay adopts a model of intellectual history based on the Kuhnian argument that scientific knowledge evolves through key historical moments that establish theoretical paradigms. These paradigms are replaced only when awareness in the field of anomalies — problems that the existing theoretical paradigm cannot solve — presents a crisis for that paradigm that coincides with the emergence of an "alternate candidate."

The paradigm shift in law and development was enabled by dynamics in both the academy …

The Chapter 13 Alternative: A Legislative Solution To Undersecured Home Mortgages, Hon. Samuel L. Bufford

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Immediate And Lasting Impacts Of The 2008 Economic Collapse--Lehman Brothers, General Motors, And The Secured Credit Markets, Edward J. Estrada

University of Richmond Law Review

This article analyzes the early days of the credit crisis as well as two of the largest casualties of that period-Lehman Brothers and General Motors. In addition, by focusing on the bankruptcy proceedings of these two entities as well as other judicial decisions rendered since the financial crisis began, it examines the role that courts have played in the crisis.

Sks Microfinance And For-Profit Mfis, Unscrupulous Predators Or Political Prey? Examining The Microfinance Credit Crunch In Andhra Pradesh And Assessing The Applicability Of The Un Global Compact "Protect Respect Remedy" Framework, Ashley Feasley

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

Microfinance is the practice of originating small loans and capital infusions in developing countries to poor individual families and small businesses that are outside traditional banks. Today microfinance has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry that has stakeholders in the financial services industry, private international organizations (including non-governmental organizations ("NGOs")) and global politics. The successful initial public offering ("IPO") of SKS Microfinance, ("SKS") a for-profit microfinance institution ("MFI") in August 2010 marked the pinnacle of success for the theory that for-profit MFIs could eradicate poverty while simultaneously making a huge profit through microfinance. The extremely successful SKS IPO bolstered the …

The China Currency Issue: Why The World Trade Organization Would Fail To Provide The United States With An Effective Remedy, Marcus Sohlberg

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

A critical issue in the global trading system that came to the forefront in 2010 concerns exchange rates. Having suffered to various degrees through the worst economic and financial downturn since the Great Depression, many large trading nations have sought to achieve economic recovery through export-led growth. In order to boost international competitiveness, many have engaged in competitive devaluations, i.e. interventions in currency markets to devalue domestic currency. According to Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega this situation has escalated into a “global currency war”.

This paper focuses on China’s practice of maintaining an artificially undervalued currency, and addresses the question …

Rebalancing Oil Contracts In Venezuela, Julián Cárdenas García

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

During the last decade, the Venezuelan government has pursued a reform of the legal regime of hydrocarbons tailored to its interests as an oil producing country. However, the ongoing consequences of the global economic recession which negatively impacted the Venezuelan economy, call into question the suitability of such scheme. Confronting the challenge of attracting foreign investment, the methods of awarding contracts used by the Venezuelan Government have contributed to the approval of a series of incentives which are rebalancing the contractual conditions for new oil ventures. Royalty and tax reductions, access to international arbitration and the protection granted through bilateral …

Complex Financial Institutions And Systemic Risk, Manuel A. Utset

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Importance Of Public Choice For Law, D. Daniel Sokol

UF Law Faculty Publications

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 …

Coase, Institutionalism, And The Origins Of Law And Economics, Herbert Hovenkamp

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Legal And Economic Approach To Third-Party Litigation Funding, Marco De Morpurgo

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

This article represents the first attempt to apply a comparative legal and economic approach to the study of third-party litigation funding (TPLF) - one of the most innovative trends in civil litigation financing today. TPLF consists of the practice where a third party offers financial support to a claimant in order to cover his litigation expenses, in return for a share of damages if the claim is successful. The third party receives no compensation if the claimant loses the suit. While such practice has been rapidly developing in the common law world (Australia, United States, and United Kingdom), in the …

Are Risk Preferences Stable Across Contexts? Evidence From Insurance Data, Levon Barseghyan, Jeffrey Prince, Joshua C. Teitelbaum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Using a unique data set, the authors test whether households' deductible choices in auto and home insurance reflect stable risk preferences. Their test relies on a structural model that assumes households are objective expected utility maximizers and claims are generated by household-coverage specific Poisson processes. They find that the hypothesis of stable risk preferences is rejected by the data. Their analysis suggests that many households exhibit greater risk aversion in their home deductible choices than their auto deductible choices. They find that their results are robust to several alternative modeling assumptions.

Bubbles, Busts, And Blame, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

I argue that financial asset price bubbles and busts, such as those we have recently experienced in the mortgage and securities markets, are compatible with market efficiency, individual rationality, and even ethically unobjectionable behavior. The reason is that they constitute classic recursively self-amplifying collective action problems, the hallmark of which is the efficient aggregation of individually rational behaviors into collectively calamitous outcomes. In the present case, individuals rationally "legged the spread" between cheap borrowing costs and credit-fueled capital gains rates, neither of which market actors could affect in their individual capacities even when knowing that credit would have eventually to …

Macro-Risks: The Challenge For Rational Risk Regulation, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jonathan A. Gilligan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Drawing on the recent financial crisis, we introduce the concept of macro-risk. We distinguish between micro-risks, which can be managed within conventional economic frameworks, and macro-risks, which threaten to disrupt economic systems so much that a different approach is required. We argue that catastrophic climate change is a prime example of a macro-risk. Research by climate scientists suggests disturbingly high likelihoods of temperature increases and sea level rises that could cause the kinds of systemic failures that almost occurred with the financial system. We suggest that macro-risks should be the principal concern of rational risk assessment and management, but they …

The Gaming Industry Developing Concept In Taiwan-From The U.S. Experience, Jean Ling Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the recent success experience of gaming-related investments made in Macau and Singapore, it also can be a good inspiration of developing the gaming industry in Taiwan. As the passing of the new legislation from the Taiwanese government, Taiwan could be the next potential country to join the Asian casino gaming market. The purpose of this study is to determine the appropriate direction of developing the casino gaming industry in Taiwan, according to the successful experience from U.S. The findings indicated that the six factors of developing gaming business in Taiwan are geography environment, accessibility, human resource, tourism resource, tourist …

Explaining The Importance Of Public Choice For Law, D. Daniel Sokol

Michigan Law Review

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 Steams …

Federal Earmarks In The State Of Georgia, Jeffrey Lazarus

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Earmarks have been controversial ever since becoming a prominent part of the congressional spending process. Critics charge that earmarks fund projects with little or no economic value (for instance Ted Stevens’ “Bridge to Nowhere,”) but instead allow Congress members to direct government spending to campaign contributors (the charge leading to a federal investigation of the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group). On the other side of the controversy, congressional earmarks do fund a number of community improvements which are very valuable, at least locally. In Georgia, the fiscal 2010 appropriations bills included earmarks which allocated $450,000 to update College Park’s emergency …

The Effect Of U.S. State Taxes On State Economic Prosperity, Casey Dainsberg

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Policy makers today are faced with trying to create solutions for economic troubles that become increasingly more complex and foreboding. Tax cuts and tax hikes are proposed and considered as possible solutions to various economic problems. However, the question still remains regarding which policies are most effective. The purpose of this research is to asses these competing claims. It seeks to find evidence that will shed light on one of these views. I have done this by accumulating tax and economic data from the fifty U.S. States between the years 2001-2009. Previous research has concluded that taxes do affect the …

Nonprofit Executive Compensation, Terri Lynn Helge, David M. Rosenberg

Faculty Scholarship

Excessive compensation paid to nonprofit executives and board members is one of the key issues concerning charitable organizations that garner the attention of the general public and Congress. Charitable organizations may pay reasonable compensation to their directors, executive officers and employees for their services without violating applicable federal tax law or state law. The determination of reasonable compensation depends on several factors – the budget of the organization being the most significant factor. Other factors include the number of employees of the organization, the particular sector of the charitable community served by the organization, the geographic location of the organization, …

The China-Taiwan Ecfa, Geopolitical Dimensions And Wto Law, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines legal and geopolitical aspects of the China-Taiwan Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). It begins by analyzing areas in which the two governments’ measures contravene rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In particular, it provides the first detailed examination of the significant implications emerging from the ECFA for cross-straits trade relations and East Asian regionalism. The article also explains how the ECFA was modeled on free trade agreements (FTAs) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and assesses the impact of the ECFA’s early harvest program. Finally, the article discusses the ECFA’s consistency with WTO requirements for …

Economic And Social Rights: The Role Of Courts In China, Randall Peerenboom

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article considers what the role of the courts could and should be in implementing ESR in China. Part II surveys recent global developments giving greater bite to economic and social rights, as well as some of the main controversies, debates, and approaches to promoting, protecting, and fulfilling ESR, with particular attention to the role of the courts. Part III provides a general introduction to the social, legal, political, and economic context in China, and contrasts the situation in China with South Africa?one of the global leaders in judicial implementation of ESR. The overall environment in China is, if not …

The Dangerous Illusion Of International Financial Standards And The Legacy Of The Financial Stability Forum, Cally Jordan

San Diego International Law Journal

In the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis, and the criticism directed towards the International Monetary Fund, in particular, for not having seen it coming, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) was created in 1999 under a mandate from the G7 ministers of finance and central bank governors. The Asian Financial Crisis arose suddenly, spread rapidly, and spared neither developed nor developing economies in the region, although some fared much better than others. In retrospect, the causes of the crisis were obvious and the consequences predictable. Contagion entered the financial lexicon. Thus, the role of the FSF was to promote financial …

A Test Case In International Bankruptcy Protocols: The Lehman Brothers Insolvency, Jamie Altman

San Diego International Law Journal

Part II of this Article, explains the competing theories underlying bankruptcy systems: universalism and territorialism. Part III details various statutory solutions to international bankruptcy problems. Next, Part IV analyzes the provisions of the Lehman Protocol in depth. Part V then examines the precedent upon which the Lehman Protocol relies. Part VI assesses potential threats to the Protocol?s success. This leads to Part VII, which contains suggestions for future protocols. Finally, Part VIII concludes.

Will Cutting The Payroll Tax Increase Jobs In The U.S.? Empirical Evidence From The Eu Vat, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Red Ink Rising, the Peterson–Pew Commission on Budget Reform’s report presents the country with a fiscal/employment dilemma – Congress must act immediately to stem the federal debt, but it must move carefully lest it harm employment in the fragile economy. In short, we must act fast and slow – we must decrease the debt and increase employment. This is a difficult task.

The Peterson-Pew dilemma (notably its jobs-creation aspect) was taken to heart by both of the reform commissions that issued reports soon thereafter (National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, The Moment of Truth and The Debt Reduction Task …

Slides: Environmental Water In Australia, Chris Arnott

Conversation with Water Management Reps from Colorado and Australia: "Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons Learned from Australia" (February 14)

Presenter: Chris Arnott, Managing Director, Alluvium Consulting

30 slides

Slides: Adapting To Climate Change: Lessons Learnt From The Australian Water Experience, Will Fargher

Conversation with Water Management Reps from Colorado and Australia: "Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons Learned from Australia" (February 14)

Presenter: Will Fargher, National Water Commission, Australian Government

18 slides [4 have titles only and are missing images]

Promoting Democracy In Prosecution, Russell M. Gold

Washington Law Review

Voters were meant to check prosecutors’ decisions, but that check has eroded because voters lack the information necessary to cast meaningful votes in prosecutor elections. Voters’ lack of an effective political check on prosecutors causes two related problems: (1) inefficient allocation of prosecutorial resources and (2) divestment of democratic sovereignty from the people. Prosecutors currently need not consider expenditures for incarceration or public defense because voters never see these costs and thus cannot hold their prosecutors accountable for them. Accordingly, these costs become an externality in the prosecutorial decision-making process, causing prosecutors to spend resources in socially inefficient ways. To …

Promoting Democracy In Prosecution, Russell M. Gold

Washington Law Review

Voters were meant to check prosecutors’ decisions, but that check has eroded because voters lack the information necessary to cast meaningful votes in prosecutor elections. Voters’ lack of an effective political check on prosecutors causes two related problems: (1) inefficient allocation of prosecutorial resources and (2) divestment of democratic sovereignty from the people. Prosecutors currently need not consider expenditures for incarceration or public defense because voters never see these costs and thus cannot hold their prosecutors accountable for them. Accordingly, these costs become an externality in the prosecutorial decision-making process, causing prosecutors to spend resources in socially inefficient ways. To …

Slow But Sure, Africa's Path To Democracy: [Bridled] Globalization, Education, And The Middle Class, Thomas Kojo Stephens

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

Africa! The word has been associated with poverty, greed, brutality and gangsterism. Why is Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, still wallowing in poverty while the great mass of nations are moving forward, some taking strides while others making gargantuan leaps? Is there any hope that African countries will in large part become democratic? How do they get there? In this paper, I give a short historical background of how Africa has evolved over the years into modern day Africa in order to understand how Africa has come to be what, and where it is today. I make the argument that the …