Angrist on Levitt, Instrumental Variables, Identification, and Defending Cuteness
It is apparently vogue to ask whether Steve Levitt is ruining economics? The serious question behind all of this is whether today’s economists have become too enamored with cute and clever questions rather than the day’s “big” questions. I’ve already gone on the record on this one with a comment to a post over at ... Angrist on Levitt, Instrumental Variables, Identification, and Defending Cuteness
An Interesting Paper on Unwanted Fertility and Crime
Juan Pantano, a Ph.D. Candidate in the excellent UCLA Economics Department, has a paper that some of our readers might be interested in entitled: Unwanted Fertility, Contraceptive Technology and Crime: Exploiting a Natural Experiment in Access to the Pill. Here’s the abstract: A blossoming literature in the U.S. examines the role of abortion legalization on ... An Interesting Paper on Unwanted Fertility and Crime
Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings
Brian Leiter makes the following request: I’ve heard from many readers that when you search Brian Leiter you don’t in fact get my law school ranking site as one of the top results, even though you get my blogs, my homepages, and my philosophy ranking site. So, dear reader with a blog, please post a ... Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings
Congratulations to Kate Litvak!
Kate Litvak (UT Law, and friend of TOTM) , whose excellent paper (discussed around the blogosphere here and here), “The Effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Non-US Companies Cross-Listed in the US,” has been selected as the best paper for the forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Corporate Finance associated with the Boundaries of ... Congratulations to Kate Litvak!
A New Defense of the Per Se Prohibition Against RPM?
Professor Sokol points to this paper by Ittai Paldor (an SJD student at U. Toronto) which Sokol points out qualifies as the rarely observed defense of the per se rule against RPM. Here’s an excerpt from the abstract: In the following I argue that legal policymakers’ current approach is economically justified. I show that all ... A New Defense of the Per Se Prohibition Against RPM?
FTC Website Upgrade
As David points out over at Antitrust Review, the FTC has redesigned its website. It is much easier to use than the old version and includes much easier access to content. Here is the link to the Sections 2 Hearings and another to a weekly calendar of FTC Commission Meetings, Speeches, Workshops, Testimony and other ... FTC Website Upgrade
AMC Report and Recommendations Released
Not going anywhere? The AMC Report is available. All 500 plus pages of it (including the separate statements from the individual Commissioners). There is a lot to digest and I hope to blog about some recommendations of particular interest to me next week.
You Mean Leegin's Not the Only SCOTUS Antitrust Case?
While we have been going on and on and on about Leegin here at TOTM, Manfred Gabriel offers a detailed analysis and a prediction on Twombly, the pending SCOTUS case which may provide some important guidance on 12(b)(6) standards. Gabriel predicts that the Court will neither embrace the District Court’s ruling that plus-factors must be ... You Mean Leegin's Not the Only SCOTUS Antitrust Case?
Some Preliminary Reactions to the Leegin Transcripts
Transcripts in Leegin are available here (HT: Antitrust Review where David Fischer points out some of the highlights of the oral argument). I may add some additional thoughts later after I read the whole thing again, but for now here are some first impressions: Breyer and Souter both had some interest comments on what to ... Some Preliminary Reactions to the Leegin Transcripts
Bill Henderson is One Reason I Read Blogs
As readers of TOTM know, I am interested in law school rankings. So recently I’ve been reading about the Vault “underrated” law school rankings (see my colleague Ilya Somin’s take here). Of course, I agree that GMU is underrated (and also with the praise the recruiter comments section gives to our evening students). But that ... Bill Henderson is One Reason I Read Blogs
Tabarrok on the Credit Snobs
Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok has a good post responding to recent attacks on the extension of credit to poor borrowers (and in particular, this rant from Nouriel Roubini). Here is a taste: Roubini and others generating hysteria about defaults in the mortgage market are credit snobs – they think credit is something that only the ... Tabarrok on the Credit Snobs
Is Certainty a Good Thing for Section 2 Standards?
I was searching through the eCCP site for some interesting antitrust reading material, which it always carries in surplus, and came across this testimony from Joe Sims (here is his Jones Day bio) at the Section 2 hearings discussing the lack of certainty in monopolization cases: This is generally a good thing, but it inevitably ... Is Certainty a Good Thing for Section 2 Standards?
