Law and Econ Project, Table of Contents

As promised....

Oh, Work in Progress has the temporary title Law and Economics: A Guide for the Curious. My guess is that the title will change a few more times.

Table of Contents

Introduction

             The Original of Laura

            Choice in the Shadow of the Law

Chapter 1: E pluribus unum

             Robin

            Efficiency

                        Jeremy Bentham

            The Art of the Deal

            Willingness-to-pay

            Why Maximize Wealth?

                        Common Law and Civil Law

            The Coase Theorem

            Establishing a Market to Erode Rent Controls

            The Coase Corollary

            More on Property Rights and Efficiency: The Tragedy of the Commons

            The Reverse of the Medal: Property Rights and the Anticommons

            Contracts

                        Efficiency When?

            Expectation Damages and Efficient Breach

                        Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., on Bad Men and the Law

            Accidents

            Strict Liability

            Negligence

            Crime

Chapter 2: What’s done is done?

             Bart and Lance

            Chicago Dibs

            Patents

                        Advance Market Commitments

            Preventive and Punitory Measures

            Firearm Regulation

                        John Stuart Mill

            Low Probability, High Punishment Regimes

            Destruction of Property: What’s Done Cannot Be Undone?

            Moral Rights: What’s Done Cannot Be Redone?

            Intellectual Property: What’s Done Can Be Done Repeatedly

                        Public Goods

            Nabokov and Existence Value

Chapter 3: Squeezing a balloon

            Using the Law to Serve Distributional Goals

            The Peltzman Effect

            Art Again: Resale Rights, or Droit de Suite

            Squeezing Copyright

                        Creative Commons

            The De Facto Liberalization of the Copyright Regime

            A World Without Copyright

                        Copyright Vacuums

                                    Fashion Design

                                    Comedy

Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails

            Squeezing Newspapers

                        Hyperlocal News

            Deflating Subsidies

Chapter 4: Deorum injuriae Diis curae

             Low-cost Avoider or Insurer

            Products Liability

            Comparative Negligence

                        Foreseeable Misuse and Attractive Nuisance

            Mill and the Harm Principle

                        Pecuniary Externalities

            Blocked Exchanges

            Organ Markets

                        The Iranian Kidney Transplant Program

            The Parthenon Marbles and Cultural Property

                        Statutes of Limitation

            Standards of Proof

           

Chapter 5: Crooked timber

             Enforcing Contracts

            Lochner v. New York (1905)

            Dealing with Uncertainty

            Unconscionability

            The Endowment Effect

            Default Rules

            Organ Donations, Reprise

            Vice, Rationality, and Defaults

            Attractive Nuisance for Adults?

Conclusions (unwritten)

 

Glossary (unwritten)

 

References

Law and Econ Project, Update VI

Hmmm, well, there was a December 11 deadline....

I missed the deadline, but progress has been made, oh yes. The current draft is in the continuous revision phase. There is still no draft of the Conclusions, and no draft of the Glossary. The next revisions are slated for Chapters 4 and 5. I will shortly post the draft Table of Contents so we can see where things stand.

I prepared a prospectus and e-mailed it to a university press. The editor responded enthusiastically, and asked for the entire manuscript. I sent it, but haven't heard back - maybe the draft needs some more of that "continuous revision" before it is ready for distribution?

As for my reading plan, I managed to finish Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life, by Nicholas Phillipson -- it is superb. I abandoned for the nonce This is Your Country on Drugs, by Ryan Grim (2010), and managed to read only small portions of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, by William J. Stuntz (2011). The Daniel Kahneman book, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), filled my time, and helped me decide to offer a course in behavioral economics next quarter. My current reading plan centers on Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney -- should be useful for that behavioral econ class.

As for LandE revisions, I intend to input some upgrades to Chapters 4 and 5 in the nest week or so. Hoping to get those Conclusions under way, too. I intend another bound version at that point. Scheduled to give a talk related to the manuscript on April 1, so want to prepare something for that, too.