Law and Economics Commons^™

The Business Of Ai-Producing Startups: Evidence From A Worldwide Survey, James Bessen, Stephen Michael Impink, Robert Seamans

Faculty Scholarship

We report results from a multi-year, worldwide survey of artificial intelligence (AI)-producing startups to describe the types of technologies, frameworks, data protection, and partnerships nascent firms use to develop their AI products. Analyses of our survey findings also inform how startups gather the resources to commercialize their AI applications in alignment with their entrepreneurial strategies, address competitive barriers, and respond to regulations. These data provide initial evidence of the perceived impact of these products on their customers’ tasks and industries, suggesting that these firms’ AI products not only reduce labor costs but augment human capabilities.

Negligent Hiring: Recidivism And Employment With A Criminal Record, Benjamin Pyle

Northwestern University Law Review

This Article tackles a difficult legal and policy challenge— reducing the impact of criminal records on job applicants’ chances in a manner that does not spur more discrimination—by looking at how another area of law, tort liability, impacts employers’ decision-making. It uses theoretical and empirical methods to study the most common reason employers report being reluctant to hire workers with a criminal record: legal liability generated by the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole those harmed when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I show that, in practice, …

A Giving Tree Approach: Balancing Transparency And The Deliberative Process In Judicial Review, Anteo W. Chevere

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Inheriting The Mess: How Cercla Successor Liability Shapes The Landscape For Asset Purchase Deals, Liam N. Hudson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Reverse Breakup Fees And Antitrust Approval, Albert H. Choi, Abraham L. Wickelgren

Law & Economics Working Papers

The paper examines the antitrust implications of use of reverse breakup (termination) fees in mergers. By promising to pay a reverse breakup fee to the target if the proposed merger does not get the necessary antitrust approval, the acquirer can signal to the antitrust authority that the merger is more likely to be pro-competitive. A large reverse breakup fee can also function as a commitment device by the acquirer to spend more resources in case the merger is challenged by the antitrust authority. While the first, signaling function is efficiency enhancing, the second, commitment function can lead to an efficiency …

Enforcing The Community Reinvestment Act, Jeremy C. Kress, Jeffery Y. Zhang

Law & Economics Working Papers

Nearly fifty years after the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) required banks to serve low- and moderate-income (LMI) areas, the systematic exclusion of disadvantaged communities from the mainstream financial system persists. This Article identifies a novel explanation for the CRA's limited impact: its enforcement mechanisms are ineffective.The CRA operates through two enforcement channels. Regulators must (1) consider a bank's CRA record when the bank seeks permission to merge or expand, and (2) publish periodic assessments of each bank's CRA performance. Using twenty years of CRA data, we show that neither enforcement mechanism works as intended. Banks strategically increase CRA …

Winging It: Convergence, Convivencia, And Belonging Of Latina Lawyers, Verónica C. Gonzales

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inequality As Market Failure, Erick J. Sam

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article explores economic, philosophical, and legal relationships between economic inequality and market failure, and it draws on these linkages to develop an innovative normative justification and alternative constitutional basis for a levy on wealth.

The Article’s central analytic result is that several general mechanisms responsible for common market failures can also systematically produce economic inequalities whenever preferences against extreme inequality are fairly widespread. Because these mechanisms satisfy both the ‘process-based’ and ‘outcome-based’ criteria of market failure, redistributive transfers designed to reduce these inequalities would be normatively justified under the widely accepted market failure theory of government action. On this …

Sanctioning Negligent Bankers, Kyle D. Logue, Robert Will Thomas, Jeffery Y. Zhang

Articles

Over just one week in 2023, depositor runs at a few U.S. banks threatened to trigger a worldwide banking crisis. Afterwards, the United States suffered three of the biggest bank failures in the nation’s history; in Europe, Credit Suisse became the largest financial institution to fail since the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis. Stunned by this lightning-fast panic, lawmakers, regulators, and academics have called for significant changes to the U.S. financial regulatory framework. Leading among these proposals are calls to improve supervisory oversight of banks, to tighten existing regulations on banks, and to increase deposit insurance limits. But these proposals alone …

Law And The Self-Coordinating Market Idea, Sanjukta Paul

Articles

Much of the focus of the live Symposium was on comparing existing scholarship associated with two intellectual communities. I have no objection to that enterprise in the abstract, though I think it is a bit premature where law and political economy (LPE) is concerned and sets up an apples-to-oranges comparison to the decades-old streams of work and thinking in law and economics (L&E). But I would rather use the privilege of the space in this written Symposium to sketch what I believe is the ultimate substantive nub of contestation in this conversation about the core subject matter of “the economy” …

Opting Out Of Court? Reputation And Informal Norms In Private Equity, Kobi Kastiel Professor Of Law, Yaron Nili Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Law Review

Private equity, an industry characterized by high-stake investments and complex contractual arrangements, operates almost entirely outside of courts. Despite the substantial financial stakes involved--billions of dollars locked in for years--and the potential for fiduciary conflicts, litigation between limited partners ("LPs") and general partners ("GPs") who manage the investment is exceptionally rare. In stark contrast to public markets, where shareholder litigation plays a prominent role in deterring misconduct and shaping corporate norms, the private equity world is largely defined by its absence. The puzzle, then, is this: In an industry where fiduciary breaches or misaligned incentives are not uncommon, why do …

Copyrighting Nature, Cathay Y. N. Smith -- Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article introduces a "work of nature" doctrine for copyright law. In 1903, the U.S. Supreme Court established the principle in copyright law that, while anyone can copy the original source of a copyrighted work, they cannot copy an author's copy of the original source. A century later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hinted at a "work of nature" exception, suggesting that even if copying the copy is restricted, copying elements of expression that nature displays for all observers is permissible. U.S. patent law excludes products of nature from protection, but this Article is the first …

Training To The Tech: Fostering The Ethical Adaptation To And Adoption Of Emerging Technologies In The Practice Of Law, Raymond H, Brescia

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perlindungan Hukum Penyelenggara Peer To Peer Lending Dalam Penagihan Wanprestasi Peminjam, Gina Marliana, Moch Teguh Al Baisar, Khoirul Amri Saputera

Technology and Economics Law Journal

The rapid growth of the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry in Indonesia has increased financial access for the public and micro-businesses, but this has been accompanied by an increase in default risks that threaten the stability of the industry. This study analyzes the legal framework governing protection for P2P lending operators and ethical and legally compliant collection strategies when borrowers default. Various regulations, including the PDP Law, ITE Law, P2SK Law, POJK 10/2022, POJK 40/2024, and SE OJK 19/2023, stipulate that operators must implement strict governance, identity verification, personal data protection, and collection ethics. Although the risk of default is in …

Mansion Markets: Re-Evaluating The Treatment Of Customs Unions In Antidumping Cases, Devin Humphreys

Mercer Law Review

Some customs unions look like glorified trade deals, while other customs unions look like nation‑states in the making. Since 1979, U.S. trade law has treated both kinds of customs unions the same, but this state of affairs ignores the variety of ways in which some (though not all) modern customs unions are remarkably economically integrated. Presidents from both parties have treated the European Union as a singular entity in regulating foreign trade with their Section 232 authority, and more recently, the current presidential administration has issued ad valorem tariffs against the European Union as a bloc. But due to a …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Restricting Data Flows Is A Sign Of Weakness, Nikolas Guggenberger

Seattle University Law Review

There has been a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the free flow of data across borders.  In less than a decade, the United States has transitioned from condemning barriers to digital trade to constructing a digital fortress of its own. It passed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban affecting 170 million U.S. users, citing national security concerns about its ties to China and the potential for data surveillance and content manipulation. Upon legal challenge by TikTok on First Amendment grounds, the Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality. Recent federal legislation …

Product Nationality And Corporate Identity, Trang (Mae) Nguyen

Seattle University Law Review

Global supply chains have long depended on a deceptively technical device: the attribution of a “nationality” to goods. A trade law principle, rules of origin assign products an “economic passport” that governs how they are treated at the border, including what markets they may enter and which tariff rates apply. In recent years, however, product nationality has taken on a new and far more ambitious role. As U.S. trade policy increasingly intersects with national security and human rights policy, policymakers rely on nationality-based measures to police supply chain linkages, curb geopolitical issues, and discipline firms for their links to forced …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into the software …