Consumer Reports: Car Seats Might Be Safe After All
Consumer Reports has recalled a study of rear-facing infant car seats that claimed that many seats failed crash tests using standards tougher than the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration’s. Apparently, NHSTA contacted Consumer Reports after reading the study and concluded that: “The organization’s data show its side-impact tests were actually conducted under conditions that would ... Consumer Reports: Car Seats Might Be Safe After All
In My Mailbox …
“I am very sorry to report that your Social Security number was among the 28,600 illegally retrieved. This does not mean that you are the victim of identity theft or that we have evidence of your Social Security number being misused. And it is important to know that the database does not include banking or ... In My Mailbox …
Becker and Posner on "Libertarian Paternalism"
Becker and Posner take on “libertarian paternalism” this week. The entries are both worth reading, especially for the parts where these co-bloggers disagree. Here are my favorite passages from each. First, Posner attempts to distinguish his previous defense of the NYC trans-fat ban from good old-fashioned paternalism: It might seem that the good could be ... Becker and Posner on "Libertarian Paternalism"
Cluster Hiring in Law Schools?
This article documents the “cluster hiring” strategy employed by the Duke Economics Department over the past several years (HT: Marginal Revolution). The article defines cluster hiring as: “recruiting groups of researchers who share an approach to an academic discipline and have existing relationships.” Part of the motivation for this hiring strategy was simply to increase ... Cluster Hiring in Law Schools?
A Few Things Economics is Good For …
Professor D’Amato is at it again. And by “it,” I mean making overblown claims that economics is useless (you might recall our last exchange where I responded to his mistaken assertion that economics had not changed antitrust in “any noticeable way”). Here’s his latest from a comment over at Prawfs. Well, what exactly is economics ... A Few Things Economics is Good For …
Henderson on Law School Rankings
Bill Henderson has a characteristically thoughtful post on the relationship between law school rankings and law student attrition at ELS Blog. Bill provides some evidence, based on research from a paper co-authored with Andy Morriss (Illinois), that 1L attrition increased significantly in response to the 1997 incorporation of bar passage into its placement methodology. Bill’s ... Henderson on Law School Rankings
Manne on Shareholder Democracy
Henry Manne is back with another article in the WSJ. This time Manne goes toe-to-toe with the “corporate democrats.” Profs Ribstein (“Shareholder democracy is just one of the burdens that public corporations have to bear these days”) and Bainbridge (“it’s a brilliant spanking of the shareholder activists, which I highly commend to your attention”) have ... Manne on Shareholder Democracy
Rubinstein on Behavioral Economics
Ariel Rubinstein (Tel Aviv/ NYU Econ) has posted a critique of behavioral economics. The critique addressses theoretical behavioral economics and the empirical foundations of BE. On the theory: “The psychology and economics literature has replaced a dead parrot (ed. — referring to the model of full rationality) with one that is equally dead. If the ... Rubinstein on Behavioral Economics
Warren on Rationality, Choice, and Regulation in the Credit Card Market
Elizabeth Warren (Credit Slips) points to an interesting empirical study by Agarwal, Liu, Souleses, and Chomsisengphet (“ALSC”) which examines consumer credit card selection in a natural experiment setting in which a card company offers two cards to consumers: (1) a high interest rate, no annual fee card and (2) a low rate card with an ... Warren on Rationality, Choice, and Regulation in the Credit Card Market
Pathbreaking Work in Modern Law and Economics?
A project I am working on, and will blog about in the near future, has got me thinking about the following question which I would like to pass along to our readers and my co-bloggers for their thoughts: What, if any, are the truly pathbreaking contributions to economic analysis of law in the last twenty ... Pathbreaking Work in Modern Law and Economics?
Morrison at ELS Blog
Ed Morrison (Columbia) has a great series of guest blogs at the always worth reading ELS Blog on a few research questions in bankruptcy and torts as well as a methodological entry. I am a little bit late with the link (his guest stint ended December 8th ), but I really enjoyed the posts. Here ... Morrison at ELS Blog
Two in the WSJ
Airlines and Antitrust. Kenneth Starr on Sarbox. The punchline: Even the statute’s co-author, Rep. Mike Oxley, has conceded that Sarbanes-Oxley was hastily written and enacted. In its rush to “do something” about corporate scandals, Congress overstepped the bounds of its authority. It is time to call Congress back, both to help our economy and reaffirm ... Two in the WSJ
