Law and Economics Commons^™

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 …

The Hidden Cost Of Auto Bailouts, Nathan B. Oman

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

To Build A Nation From The Bottom Up, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

After 45 years of economic achievement, genuine political participation has to be the next stage

A Conflict By Any Other Name Would Smell As Foul: A Comment On The Appointment Of A Vice-President Of Pfizer To The Cihr Governing Council, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If one had to pick the pharmaceutical company most associated with unethical and illegal conduct this past year, it would likely be Pfizer. So it seems reasonable to respond with disbelief and outrage to the federal government’s October 5, 2009 appointment of Dr. Bernard Prigent – Vice President, Medical Director and registered lobbyist for Pfizer Canada – to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Governing Council (CIHR GC). This is the body that sets the strategic direction for most federally funded health research in Canada. A senior executive from a for-profit pharmaceutical company should not be given a seat at …