Comments on: The Future of Law and Economics Part 5: A Reply From Henry Manne http://truthonthemarket.com/2008/05/12/the-future-of-law-and-economics-part-5-a-reply-from-henry-manne/ Academic commentary on law, business, economics and more Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Bernard Sharfman http://truthonthemarket.com/2008/05/12/the-future-of-law-and-economics-part-5-a-reply-from-henry-manne/#comment-7296 Mon, 19 May 2008 18:12:54 +0000 http://www.truthonthemarket.com/2008/05/12/the-future-of-law-and-economics-part-5-a-reply-from-henry-manne/#comment-7296 I believe the following story lends support for Professor Manne’s skepticism regarding the value of utilizing econometrics and empirical analysis in legal research.

Back in the early 80s, I was participating in a Ph.D. program in Economics at the University of Michigan, a school with a strong reputation for econometrics. One afternoon, I decided to attend a well publicized seminar where Harold Demsetz was presenting a paper. Unfortunately, the presentation quickly turned into an attack on Professor Demsetz’s statistical methodology by those brilliant but misguided Ph.D. candidates specializing in econometrics. The result wasn’t pretty and it really turned the focus away from the ideas he was trying to convey. What a waste.

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