Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Do We Worry About When We Worry About Price Discrimination? The Law And Ethics Of Using Personal Information For Pricing, Akiva A. Miller

Akiva A Miller

New information technologies have dramatically increased sellers’ ability to engage in retail price discrimination. Debates over using personal information for price discrimination frequently treat it as a single problem, and are not sufficiently sensitive to the variety of price discrimination practices, the different kinds of information they require in order to succeed, and the different ethical concerns they raise. This paper explores the ethical and legal debate over regulating price discrimination facilitated by consumers’ personal information. Various kinds of “privacy remedies”—self-regulation, technological fixes, state regulation, and legislating private causes of legal action—each have their place. By drawing distinctions between various …

The Methodology Of The Behavioral Analysis Of Law, Avishalom Tor

Avishalom Tor

This article examines the behavioral analysis of law, meaning the application of empirical behavioral evidence to legal analysis, which has become increasingly popular in legal scholarship in recent years. Following the introduction in Part I, this Article highlights four central propositions on the subject. The first, developed in Part II, asserts that the efficacy of the law often depends on its accounting for relevant patterns of human behavior, most notably those studied by behavioral decision scientists. This Part therefore reviews important behavioral findings, illustrating their application and relevance to a broad range of legal questions. Part III then argues that …

La Patentes Como Límite A La Innovación Tecnológica, Alejandro Pérez Y Soto Dominguez, Katherine Flórez Pinilla

Alejandro Pérez y Soto Dominguez

El presente artículo analiza, desde el marco de la Escuela Austriaca, la propiedad intelectual reflejada en las patentes, entendidas como un mecanismo del legislador para incentivar una conducta empresarial que propenda por la innovación y el desarrollo tecnológico. Se tomó como caso las patentes en el sector farmacéutico, obteniendo a partir de éste evidencia empírica la corroboración de las hipótesis de la escuela, por medio de un análisis teórico a la luz de los problemas identificados alrededor de la patente, tales como: discriminación de precios, investigación parcializada en ciertas enfermedades, poder de mercado ilimitado, barreras al desarrollo tecnológico nacional, altos …

Strategic Default In Joint Liability Groups: Evidence From A Natural Experiment In India, Xavier Gine, Karuna Krishnaswamy, Alejandro Ponce

Alejandro Ponce

Despite the high repayment rates claimed by microcredit programs around the world, some groups of borrowers eventually default and are subsequently disbanded. Exposure to common shocks and strategic default are reasons for the deterioration in group repayment but identification of the precise mechanism is difficult. In this paper we exploit an announcement issued by the Anjuman Committee of a town in southern India banning all Muslims from repaying their microfinance loans. Using administrative data we find that borrowers in Muslim-dominated groups have higher default rates after the announcement compared to the same borrowers with loans in Hindu-dominated groups. We conclude …

Coase Minus The Coase Theorem--Some Problems With Chicago Transaction Cost Analysis, Pierre Schlag

Pierre Schlag

In law as well as economics, the most well-known aspect of Coase’s “The Problem of Social Cost,” is the Coase Theorem. Over the decades, that particular notion has morphed into a crucial component of Chicago law and economics—namely, transaction cost analysis. In this Article, I deliberately bracket the Coase Theorem to show that “The Problem of Social Cost” contains far more interesting and unsettling lessons—both for law as well as for economics. Indeed, while Coase’s arguments clearly target the Pigouvian attempts to “improve on the market” through government correctives, there is, lurking in those arguments, a much more profound critique …

Patentes Como Límite A La Innovación Tecnológica, Katherine Florez Pinilla, Alejandro Perez Y Soto Domínguez

KATHERINE FLOREZ PINILLA

El presente artículo pretende analizar, desde el marco de la Escuela Austriaca, la propiedad intelectual reflejada en las patentes, entendidas como un mecanismo del legislador para incentivar una conducta empresarial que propenda por la innovación y el desarrollo tecnológico. Se tomó como caso las patentes en el sector farmacéutico, obteniendo a partir de éste evidencia empírica la corroboración de las hipótesis de la escuela, por medio de un análisis teórico a la luz de los problemas identificados alrededor de la patente, tales como: discriminación de precios, investigación parcializada en ciertas enfermedades, poder de mercado ilimitado, barreras al desarrollo tecnológico nacional, …

The Commons, Capitalism, And The Constitution, George Skouras

George Skouras

Thesis Summary: the erosion of the Commons in the United States has contributed to the deterioration of community and uprooting of people in order to meet the dynamic demands of capitalism. This article suggests countervailing measures to help remedy the situation.

Lessons From Metaethics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Moral Psychology, And Behavioral Economics: The Use Of Ethical Intuition In Legal Compliance For Business Entities, Eric C. Chaffee

Eric C. Chaffee

This article challenges the widely held view in legal education and in practice that what lawyers should be doing in providing legal advice consists solely of engaging in legal research and analytic reasoning. This article suggests that ethical intuition—i.e., the unconscious recognition that a specific action is good, evil, or morally neutral—may have a useful role to play in making legal compliance decisions for business entities.

Although largely ignored by the legal academy, scholars in numerous disciplines have acknowledged the role that intuition plays in decision making. Philosophers and religious scholars initially recognized role of intuition in moral decision making …

A Market For Tax Compliance, Walter E. Afield Iii

Walter E Afield III

It is becoming increasingly clear that, due to political realities and budgetary constraints, the IRS is going to have to attempt to enforce the tax laws by doing more with less. Current enforcement efforts have yielded a tax gap (i.e., the difference between the amount of taxes that should be paid and the amount that are collected) of roughly $450 billion annually. Faced with this task, one of the steps that the IRS has recently taken is to try to improve the quality in services performed by paid tax preparers, a group that historically has been subject to little IRS …

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.

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …

Moving Money: International Financial Flows, Taxes, Money Laundering & Transparency, Richard Gordon, Andrew P. Morriss

Andrew P Morriss

Recent publicity over enormous estimates of “missing” wealth and the use of sophisticated tax strategies by companies like Apple, Google, and Starbucks have produced a demand that the wealthy pay a “fair” amount of tax regardless of their compliance with the letter of tax laws. In particular, the Tax Justice Network’s claim that $21-$32 trillion of “hidden” wealth remains untaxed has garnered considerable attention. In this paper we argue that these claims rest on poor data and analysis and mistakes about how financial transactions work. We further argue that the disputes are about fundamentally conflicting visions of how financial transactions …

The Underutilized Foreign Investor, Griffin Weaver

Griffin Weaver

For most states, if not all, the push for economic advancement is at the front of every administration’s agenda. This is especially true for developing countries in the Middle East whose standard of living and international power is largely tied to its economic condition. An important indicator, if not condition, of a state’s economic health is the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) received by the state. This inflow of money is essential for the growth and stability of a state’s economy. As one U.S. official once noted, the United States “need[s] a net inflow of capital of $3 billion …

Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

Effective corporate governance is critical to the productive operation of the global economy and preservation of our way of life. Excellent governance execution is also required to achieve economic growth and robust job creation in any country. In the United States, the premier director membership organization is the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Now over 36 years old, NACD plays a major role in fostering excellence in corporate governance in the United States and beyond. Over the past thirty-six years NACD has grown from a mere realization of the importance of corporate governance to become the only national membership …

How To Create American Manufacturing Jobs, John D. Gleissner Esquire

John D Gleissner Esquire

No abstract provided.

An Economic Survey Analysis Of The Legal Literature Pertaining To The Privacy Implications Of Radio Frequency Identification Technology, Stephen M. Jerbic

Stephen M. Jerbic

No abstract provided.

A Theory Without A Movement, A Hope Without A Name: The Future Of Marxism In A Post-Marxist World, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Just as Marx's insights into capitalism have been most strikingly vindicated by the rise of neoliberalism and the near-collapse of the world economy, Marxism as social movement has become bereft of support. Is there any point in people who find Marx's analysis useful in clinging to the term "Marxism" - which Marx himself rejected -- at time when self-identified Marxist organizations and societies have collapsed or renounced the identification, and Marxism own working class constituency rejects the term? I set aside bad reasons to give on "Marxism," such as that the theory is purportedly refuted, that its adoption leads necessarily …

No Longer The Sleeping Dog, The Fcpa Is Awake And Ready To Bite: Analysis Of The Increased Fcpa Enforcements, The Implications, And Recommendations For Reform, Rouzhna Nayeri

Rouzhna Nayeri

No abstract provided.

Inviabilidad Del Sistema Pensional Colombiano (Por Segmentación De Mercado), Fernando Castillo Cadena

Fernando Castillo Cadena

No abstract provided.

Waging War On Specialty Pharmaceutical Tiering In Pharmacy Benefit Design, Chad I. Brooker

Chad I Brooker

Specialty drugs represent a growing concern for both health insurance issuers and beneficiaries given their exceedingly high (and growing) costs—representing almost half of all drug spend by 2017. Payers have sought to reduce their specialty drug spend by sharing more of the cost of these drugs with the beneficiaries who depend on them through the creation of specialty drug tiers. This has forced some patients to choose between forgoing other needs to pay for their medications or not take them at all. While several states have sought to outlaw the use of specialty drug tiers or limit pharmaceutical OOP cost-sharing, …

Snopa And The Ppa: Do You Know What It Means For You? If Snopa (Social Networking Online Protection Act) Or Ppa (Password Protection Act) Do Not Pass, The Snooping Could Cause You Trouble, Angela Goodrum

Angela Goodrum

No abstract provided.

Democracy, Law And Global Finance: An Example Of A Research Agenda For A New Practice Of Law And Economics, Tamara Lothian

Tamara Lothian

No abstract provided.

Reformando Las Telecomunicaciones, Víctor Pavón-Villamayor

Víctor Pavón-Villamayor

No abstract provided.

What’S Age Got To Do With It? Supreme Court Appointees And The Long Run Location Of The Supreme Court Median Justice, Matthew L. Spitzer

Matthew L Spitzer

For approximately the past 40 years Republican Presidents have appointed younger Justices than have Democratic Presidents. Depending on how one does the accounting, the average age difference will vary, but will not go away. This Article posits that Republicans appointing younger justices than Democrats may have caused a rightward shift in the Supreme Court. We use computer simulations to show that if the trend continues the rightward shift will likely increase. We also to produce some very rough estimates of the size of the ideological shift, contingent on the size of the age differential. In addition, we show that the …

Negative Externalities And Subprime Auto Financing: Time To Let The Hanging Paragraph Go(2), Chunlin Leonhard

Chunlin Leonhard

Economists generally agree that when private transactions generate negative externalities (i.e. unintended harmful byproduct), government intervention is potentially necessary. Negative externalities are considered socially inefficient because they destroy market supply and demand equilibrium. The existence of negative externalities is therefore one of those rare occasions when government intervention in private transactions is justified. It follows that when the government does choose to intervene, its goal should be to remedy, not to encourage, negative externalities. This article identifies one bankruptcy rule, commonly known as the Hanging Paragraph in the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(9), that violates the basic principle of …

China-Taiwan Trade Relations: Implications Of The Wto And Asian Regionalism, Pasha L. Hsieh

Pasha L. Hsieh

Cross-strait relations underwent a fundamental change when both China and Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. The WTO is the first world-wide multilateral organization in which China and Taiwan share equal statuses. Thus, the WTO provides a neutral forum for China and Taiwan to resolve trade conflicts. More importantly, the WTO requires the two states to behave toward one another in a manner consistent with WTO norms. Consequently, the trade policies of China and Taiwan would change in response to their WTO obligations. In addition to the WTO, Asian regionalism, which refers to the recent accelerated integration …

Rescuing Access To Patented Essential Medicines: Pharmaceutical Companies As Tortfeasors Under The Prevented Rescue Tort Theory, Richard Cameron Gower

Richard Cameron Gower

Despite some difficulties, state tort law can be argued to create a unique exception to patent law. Specifically, the prevented rescue doctrine suggests that charities and others can circumvent patents on certain critical medications when such actions are necessary to save individuals from death or serious harm. Although this Article finds that the prevented rescue tort doctrines is preempted by federal patent law, all hope is not lost. A federal substantive due process claim may be brought that uses the common law to demonstrate a fundamental right that has long been protected by our Nation’s legal traditions. Moreover, this Article …

Are People Probabilistically Challenged? Book Review Of Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast And Slow (2011), Alex Stein

Alex Stein

Daniel Kahneman’s recent book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is a must-read for any scholar and policymaker interested in behavioral economics. Thus far, behavioral economists did predominantly experimental work that uncovered discrete manifestations of people’s bounded rationality: representativeness, availability, anchoring, overoptimism, base-rate neglect, hindsight bias, loss aversion, and other misevaluations of probability and utility. This work has developed no causal explanations for these misevaluations. Kahneman’s book takes the discipline to a different level by developing an integrated theory of bounded rationality’s causes and characteristics. This theory holds that humans use two distinct modes of reasoning, intuitive (System 1) and deliberative (System …

Standard Contract Clauses As Public Goods: A New Way Of Understanding Inefficient Clauses, Enrico Baffi

enrico baffi

The aim of this work is to show how it is possible to identify market failures other than those traditionally identified by lawyers and law and economics scholars to justify the mandatory provisions of contracts between professionals and consumers and the equally mandatory provisions governing the abuse of economic dependency. This is a new approach that can be extended to other provisions and appears to rest on fairly solid microeconomic foundations. There is no doubt, however, that many criticisms can be leveled against it. Very briefly, I shall argue that the production of clauses characterized by being rather vague, indeterminate …

Transaction Cost-Benefit Analysis, With Applications To Financial Regulation, D. Bruce Johnsen

D. Bruce Johnsen

As Coase convincingly showed, transaction costs inhibit the ability of market participants to achieve first-best outcomes. This paper proposes a novel and relatively simple alternative to traditional cost-benefit analysis when regulated parties face sufficiently low transaction costs that they can bargain directly or rely on competitive markets to set efficient terms of trade. In these settings, the only informational burdens financial market regulators need bear to assess corrective rules is to identify the relevant parties, the “good” they hope to exchange, and the transaction costs that inhibit them from maximizing joint gains from trade. A rule is justified only if …