A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics
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Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law
Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2003 Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law Alan Schwartz Robert E. Scott Columbia Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Contracts Commons Recommended Citation Alan Schwartz & Robert E. Scott, Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law, 113 YALE L. J. 541 (2003). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/339 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Article Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law Alan Schwartz* and Robert E. Scottt* CONTENTS I. IN TROD U CTION ................................................................................. 543 II. JUSTIFYING AN EFFICIENCY THEORY OF CONTRACT ........................ 550 A . W hat Firms M axim ize .................................................................. 550 B. Why the State Should Help Firms ................................................ 555 III. THE ENFORCEMENT FUNCTION ........................................................ 556 A. Enforcement Often Is Unnecessary.............................................. 557 B. EncouragingRelation-Specific Investment .................................. 559 C. -
When Does Behavioural Economics Really Matter?
When does behavioural economics really matter? Ian McAuley, University of Canberra and Centre for Policy Development (www.cpd.org.au) Paper to accompany presentation to Behavioural Economics stream at Australian Economic Forum, August 2010. Summary Behavioural economics integrates the formal study of psychology, including social psychology, into economics. Its empirical base helps policy makers in understanding how economic actors behave in response to incentives in market transactions and in response to policy interventions. This paper commences with a short description of how behavioural economics fits into the general discipline of economics. The next section outlines the development of behavioural economics, including its development from considerations of individual psychology into the fields of neurology, social psychology and anthropology. It covers developments in general terms; there are excellent and by now well-known detailed descriptions of the specific findings of behavioural economics. The final section examines seven contemporary public policy issues with suggestions on how behavioural economics may help develop sound policy. In some cases Australian policy advisers are already using the findings of behavioural economics to advantage. It matters most of the time In public policy there is nothing novel about behavioural economics, but for a long time it has tended to be ignored in formal texts. Like Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain who was surprised to find he had been speaking prose all his life, economists have long been guided by implicit knowledge of behavioural economics, particularly in macroeconomics. Keynes, for example, understood perfectly the “money illusion” – people’s tendency to think of money in nominal rather than real terms – in his solution to unemployment. -
Property in Housing Lee Anne Fennell
University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Kreisman Working Paper Series in Housing Law and Working Papers Policy 2013 Property in Housing Lee Anne Fennell Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/ housing_law_and_policy Part of the Law Commons Chicago Unbound includes both works in progress and final versions of articles. Please be aware that a more recent version of this article may be available on Chicago Unbound, SSRN or elsewhere. Recommended Citation Lee Anne Fennell, "Property in Housing" (Kreisman Working Papers Series in Housing Law and Policy No. 13, 2013). This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Working Papers at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Kreisman Working Paper Series in Housing Law and Policy by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHICAGO PUBLIC LAW AND LEGAL THEORY WORKING PAPER NO. 426 KREISMAN WORKING PAPER ON HOUSING LAW AND POLICY NO. 13 PROPERTY IN HOUSING Lee Anne Fennell THE LAW SCHOOL THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO April 2013 This paper can be downloaded without charge at the Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper Series: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/academics/publiclaw/index.html and The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection. Academia Sinica Law Journal No. 12 March 2013 Property in Housing Lee Anne Fennell Suggested citation format: Footnote: Lee Anne Fennell, Property in Housing , 12 ACADEMIA SINICA L.J. 31, 31-78 (2013). Reference : Fennell, Lee Anne. 2013. Property in Housing. Academia Sinica Law Journal 12:31-78. -
Mindful Economics: the Production, Consumption, and Value of Beliefs
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 30, Number 3—Summer 2016—Pages 141–164 Mindful Economics: The Production, Consumption, and Value of Beliefs Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole n the economic models of old, agents had backward-looking expectations, arising from simple extrapolation or error-correction rules. Then came the I rational-expectations revolution in macroeconomics, and in microeconomics the spread and increasing refinements of modern game theory. Agents were now highly sophisticated information processors, who could not be systematically fooled. This approach reigned for several decades until the pendulum swung back with the rise of behavioral economics and its emphasis on “heuristics and biases” (as in Tversky and Kahneman 1974). Overconfidence, confirmation bias, distorted prob- ability weights, and a host of other “wired-in” cognitive mistakes are now common assumptions in many areas of economics. Over the last decade or so, the pendulum has started to swing again toward some form of adaptiveness, or at least implicit purposefulness, in human cognition. In this paper, we provide a perspective into the main ideas and findings emerging from the growing literature on motivated beliefs and reasoning. This perspec- tive emphasizes that beliefs often fulfill important psychological and functional needs of the individual. Economically relevant examples include confidence in ones’ abilities, moral self-esteem, hope and anxiety reduction, social identity, polit- ical ideology and religious faith. People thus hold certain beliefs in part because ■ Roland Bénabou is Theodore A. Wells ‘29 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princ- eton University, Princeton, New Jersey and a Senior Fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Canada. -
4000 Contract Law: General Theories
4000 CONTRACT LAW: GENERAL THEORIES Richard Craswell Professor of Law, Stanford Law School © Copyright 1999 Richard Craswell Abstract When contracts are incomplete, the law must rely on default rules to resolve any issues that have not been explicitly addressed by the parties. Some default rules (called ‘majoritarian’ or ‘market-mimicking’) are designed to be left in place by most parties, and thus are chosen to reflect an efficient allocation of rights and duties. Others (called ‘information-forcing’ or ‘penalty’ default rules) are designed not to be left in place, but rather to encourage the parties themselves to explicitly provide some other resolution; these rules thus aim to encourage an efficient contracting process. This chapter describes the issues raised by such rules, including their application to heterogeneous markets and to separating and pooling equilibria; it also briefly discusses some non- economic theories of default rules. Finally, this chapter also discusses economic and non-economic theories about the general question of why contracts should be enforced at all. JEL classification: K12 Keywords: Contracts, Incomplete Contracts, Default Rules 1. Introduction This chapter describes research bearing on the general aspects of contract law. Most research in law and economics does not explicitly address these general aspects, but instead proceeds directly to analyze particular rules of contract law, such as the remedies for breach. That body of research is described below in Chapters 4100 through 4800. There is, however, some scholarship on the general nature of contract law’s ‘default rules’, or the rules that define the parties’ obligations in the absence of any explicit agreement to the contrary. -
Positivism and the Separation of Law and Economics
Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 1996 Positivism and the Separation of Law and Economics Avery W. Katz Columbia Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Business Organizations Law Commons, and the Law and Economics Commons Recommended Citation Avery W. Katz, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Economics, 94 MICH. L. REV. 2229 (1996). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/610 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. POSITIVISM AND THE SEPARATION OF LAW AND ECONOMICS Avery Wiener Katz* INTRODUCION The modem field of law and economics - that is, the application of economic analysis to legal subjects other than trade and business reg- ulation - is now over thirty years old, but it remains controversial in the legal academy and, to a lesser extent, in the profession at large. Since its beginnings in the early 1960s, the economic approach has pro- voked substantial opposition and antagonism. The sources of this resis- tance, however, are a matter of dispute. Many economists and economi- cally influenced lawyers attribute it to more traditional lawyers' reluctance to learn a new and unfamiliar set of concepts and techniques. Critics of the economic approach offer a variety of other explanations. Some are skeptical of the utility of abstract theoretical modeling in the social sciences,' others object to economics' central behavioral assump- tion of rational choice,2 still others criticize economics' supposed liber- tarian politics and ideological allegiance to laissez-faire. -
Law and Political Economy in a Time of Accelerating Crises
Angela P. Harris, School of Law, UC Davis James J. (“Jay”) Varellas III, Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley* Introduction: Law and Political Economy in a Time of Accelerating Crises Abstract In this time of accelerating crises nationally and worldwide, conventional understandings of the relationships among state, market, and society and their regulation through law are inadequate. In this Editors’ Introduction to Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Journal of Law and Political Economy, we reflect on our current historical moment, identify genealogies of the Law and Political Economy (LPE) project, articulate some of the intellectual foundations of the work, and finally discuss the journal’s institutional history and context. Keywords: Law and Political Economy I. Introduction Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises contains this famous exchange: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” In the United States and around the world, we are facing intertwined crises: skyrocketing economic inequality, an increasingly destabilizing and extractive system of global finance, dramatic shifts in the character of work and economic production, a crisis of social reproduction, the ongoing disregard of Black and brown lives, the rise of new authoritarianisms, a global pandemic, and, of course, looming above all, the existential threat of global climate change. From the vantage point of mid-2020, it is impossible to avoid the sense that these crises, like Mike’s bankruptcy, have emerged both suddenly and as the result of problems long in the making. It is also clear that these interlocking crises are accelerating as they collide with societies whose capacities to respond have been hollowed out by decades of neoliberalism. -
Memory, Attention, and Choice
Memory, Attention, and Choice Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Andrei Shleifer1 Revised May 7, 2019 (original version 2015) Abstract. Building on the textbook description of associative memory (Kahana 2012), we present a model of choice in which options cue recall of similar past experiences. Recall shapes valuation and choice in two ways. First, recalled experiences form a norm, which serves as an initial anchor for valuation. Second, salient quality and price surprises relative to the norm lead to large adjustments in valuation. The model provides a unified account of many well documented choice puzzles including experience effects, projection and attribution biases, background contrast effects, and context- dependent willingness to pay. The results suggest that well-established psychological processes – memory-based norms and attention to surprising features – are key to understanding decision-making. 1 The authors are from University of Oxford, Universita Bocconi, and Harvard University, respectively. We are grateful to Dan Benjamin, Paulo Costa, Ben Enke, Matt Gentzkow, Sam Gershman, Thomas Graeber, Michael Kahana, Spencer Kwon, George Loewenstein, Sendhil Mullainathan, Josh Schwartzstein, Jesse Shapiro, Jann Spiess, Linh To, and Pierre- Luc Vautrey for valuable comments. Shleifer thanks the Sloan Foundation and the Pershing Square Venture Fund for Research on the Foundations of Human Behavior for financial support. 1 1. Introduction Memory appears to play a central role in even the simplest choices. Consider a thirsty traveler thinking of whether to look for a shop to buy a bottle of water at the airport. He automatically retrieves from memory similar past experiences, including the pleasure of quenching his thirst and the prices he paid before, and decides based on these recollections. -
1 FTC Perspectives on the Use of Econometric Analyses in Antitrust
FTC Perspectives on the Use of Econometric Analyses in Antitrust Cases∗ David Scheffman and Mary Coleman1 I. Introduction This paper discusses our perspectives, as FTC economists and experienced litigation economists, on how to make econometric analyses more useful in antitrust investigations and litigation. We first briefly discuss the role of econometrics and empirical analyses generally in antitrust. Sound empirical analyses can (and should) provide important evidence in an antitrust investigation or litigation. Based on our experience at the FTC and as litigation economists, we then suggest “best practices” for developing econometric studies that will be useful to the FTC in its decision making. We also provide some examples of the types of useful econometric analyses that are frequently conducted in FTC investigations. Finally, expanding on some the issues raised in the recent FTC working paper,2 we discuss the use of scanner data for demand estimation, the use of merger simulation models, and the use of manufacturer level data in consumer products cases. A. Quantitative Analyses, Generally Before discussing econometric analyses, we begin with a more general perspective on quantitative analyses. Some of the most important issues in antitrust cases often hinge on quantitative evidence (e.g., levels and trends in prices, market shares, sales, margins, profitability, and shipment patterns). These types of quantitative analyses are often very important and frequently do not involve statistical/econometric analyses. We begin with this basic point because although there has been much attention in recent years to the use of formal modeling and econometric estimation in antitrust, we should not lose sight of the fact that quantitative analyses of various kinds are useful. -
Labor Law, Antitrust Law, and Economics Professors' Comment
Boston College Law School Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School Boston College Law School Faculty Papers 1-14-2019 Labor Law, Antitrust Law, and Economics Professors' Comment on the National Labor Relations Board's Proposed Joint-Employer Rule Hiba Hafiz Boston College Law School, [email protected] Brishen Rogers Temple University Beasley School of Law, [email protected] Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt Indiana University Maurer School of Law, [email protected] Kate Bronfenbrenner Cornell University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/lsfp Part of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons, and the Labor and Employment Law Commons Recommended Citation Hiba Hafiz, Brishen Rogers, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, and Kate Bronfenbrenner. "Labor Law, Antitrust Law, and Economics Professors' Comment on the National Labor Relations Board's Proposed Joint-Employer Rule." (2019). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law School Faculty Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Labor Law, Antitrust Law, and Economics Professors’ Comment on the National Labor Relations Board’s Proposed Joint-Employer Rule January 14, 2019 Submitted via www.regulations.gov John F. Ring, Chairman National Labor Relations Board 1015 Half Street, SE Washington, D.C. 20570-0001 Attn: Roxanne Rothschild, -
An Economic Sociological Look at Economics
An Economic Sociologial Look at Economics 5 An Economic Sociological Look at Economics By Patrik Aspers, Sebastian Kohl, Jesper an impact on essentially all strands of economics over the Roine, and Philipp Wichardt 1 past decades. The fact that game theory is not (only) a subfield but a basis for studying strategic interaction in Introduction general – where ‘strategic’ does not always imply full ra- tionality – has made it an integral part of most subfields in New economic sociology can be viewed as an answer to economics. This does not mean that all fields explicitly use economic imperialism (Beckert 2007:6). In the early phase game theory, but that there is a different appreciation of of new economic sociology, it was common to compare or the importance of the effects (strategically, socially or oth- debate the difference between economics and sociology. erwise) that actors have on one another in most fields of The first edition of the Handbook of Economic Sociology economics and this, together with other developments, (Smelser/Swedberg 1994:4) included a table which com- has brought economics closer to economic sociology. pared “economic sociology” and “main-stream econom- ics,” which is not to be found in the second edition (Smel- Another point, which is often missed, is the impact of the ser/Swedberg 2005). Though the deletion of this table was increase in computational power that the introduction of due to limited space, one can also see it as an indication of computers has had on everyday economic research. The a gradual shift within economic sociology over this pe- ease by which very large data materials can be analyzed riod.2 has definitely shifted mainstream economics away from “pure theory” toward testing of theories with more of a That economic sociology, as economic anthropology, was premium being placed on unique data sets, often collected defined in relation to economics is perhaps natural since by the analyst. -
Edited by Alain Samson with a Foreword by George Loewenstein
Edited by Alain Samson With a Foreword by George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland The Behavioral Economics Guide 2014 1st Edition Author information: Alain Samson (Editor) George Loewenstein (Foreword) Rory Sutherland (Foreword) Phil Barden, Francesco Bogliacino, Leigh Caldwell, Cristiano Codagnone, Tom Ewing, Gerhard Fehr, George Gaskell,, Asit Gupta, Elina Halonen, Juliet Hodges, Moritz Jäger, Alain Kamm, John Kearon, Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Henry Stott, Giuseppe A. Veltri (Contributing authors) Design and layout by Elina Halonen. Cover design adapted from Tilly Patsalis. Proofing by Mark Jones and Leigh Caldwell. Copyright © by the authors All Rights Reserved Requests for permission to reproduce materials from this work should be sent to [email protected] or directly to contributing authors. Suggested citation: Samson, A. (Ed.)(2014). The Behavioral Economics Guide 2014 (with a foreword by George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland) (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://www.behavioraleconomics.com. Suggested citation for individual sections/authors: [Author(s)] (2014). [Chapter/Section Title]. In A. Samson (Ed.), The Behavioral Economics Guide 2014 (with a foreword by George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland) (1st ed.)(pp. nn-nn). Retrieved from http://www.behavioraleconomics.com. II Behavioral Economics Guide – 2014 With Contributions By: III Behavioral Economics Guide – 2014 Contents FOREWORD George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland: An Exchange ...............................................................................................................................