The First Great Law & Economics Movement

The Law and Economics of Antidiscrimination Law

This essay provides an overview of the central theoretical law and economics insights concerning antidiscrimination law across a variety of contexts including discrimination in labor markets, housing markets, consumer purchases, and policing. The different models of discrimination based on animus, statistical discrimination, and cartel exploitation are analyzed for both race and sex discriminat...

A the First Wave of Law and Economics and Its Separation from Comparative Law

I wish to lay out the emerging trends in law and economics as a call to give up what was so appealing about the first wave of law and economics – namely the illusion of resolution, certainty and mastery over complex legal issues – in favour of greater partiality, imperfection, and multiplicity, but also greater wisdom. The emerging law and economics – what I am calling the second wave of law an...

Law and Behavioral Economics

Although the impact of economics on the analysis and practice of law is beyond any reasonable doubt, such impact and influence has been decreasing over time. This may be partly due to the fact that many economists seem to have forgotten the practical goals with which the field of law and economics was endowed. But it may also be due to the fact that researchers in behavioral economics found an ...

Expressive Law and Economics

This article develops an economic theory of expressive law. By expressing social values, law can tip a system of social norms into a new equilibrium. This process can create or destroy a social norm without changing individual values. In addition, law can change the individual values of rational people. Internalizing a social norm is a moral commitment that attaches a psychological penalty to a...

Empirical Law and Economics