Kahneman’s Time Interview Fails to Allay Concerns About Behavioral Law and Economics
TOTM alumnus Todd Henderson recently pointed me to a short, ten-question interview Time Magazine conducted with Nobel prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman. Prof. Kahneman is a founding father of behavioral economics, which rejects the rational choice model of human behavior (i.e., humans are rational self-interest maximizers) in favor of a more complicated model that incorporates a number ... Kahneman’s Time Interview Fails to Allay Concerns About Behavioral Law and Economics
Welcome Baby 7B!
According to the United Nations, sometime around Halloween a newborn baby will push the world’s population above seven billion people. Welcome to our spectacular planet, Little One! I should warn you that not everyone will greet your arrival as enthusiastically as I. A great many smart folks on our planet—especially highly educated people in rich ... Welcome Baby 7B!
Law Review Publishing Norms and Inefficient Performance
One of my colleagues recently accepted a publication offer on a law review article, only to receive a later publication offer from a much more prestigious journal. This sort of occurrence is not uncommon in the legal academy, where scholars submitting articles for publication do not offer to publish their work in a journal but rather solicit publication offers from journals (and generally solicit ... Law Review Publishing Norms and Inefficient Performance
Shouldn’t the Wall Street Occupiers Oppose Obamacare?
It’s hard to discern much that’s coherent — much less cogent — from the cacophony that is Occupy Wall Street, but one valid complaint continually sounds through the noise: When business interests get in bed with the government, injustice tends to result. The Wall Street Occupiers are of course focused primarily on bailed-out financial firms (though not on union favorites GM ... Shouldn’t the Wall Street Occupiers Oppose Obamacare?
Dear Michael Pollan: When It Comes to GM Food, the Problem is Regulation, Not Its Absence.
Before concluding that “there ought to be a law” to remedy an unhappy situation, one should ask whether it’s really a law that’s causing the problem in the first place. I was reminded of that principle this afternoon when I read some remarks by Michael Pollan, doyen of the “slow food” movement, in today’s New ... Dear Michael Pollan: When It Comes to GM Food, the Problem is Regulation, Not Its Absence.
Obama’s Fatal Conceit
From the beginning of his presidency, I’ve wanted President Obama to succeed. He was my professor in law school, and while I frequently disagreed with his take on things, I liked him very much. On the eve of his inauguration, I wrote on TOTM that I hoped he would spend some time meditating on Hayek’s ... Obama’s Fatal Conceit
Thom Lambert on Alternatives to Lawyer Licensing
Let’s start at the very beginning. When analyzing the merits of any regulation — i.e., any rule that disrupts private ordering by threat of force — one should first ask what problem the regulation aims to avert. When it comes to the rules banning sales (and thereby preventing purchases) of legal services by unlicensed individuals, ... Thom Lambert on Alternatives to Lawyer Licensing
Undermining Community for Specious Public Health Benefits
We classical liberals are often criticized for undermining communitarian values by emphasizing individual liberties. In reality, though, a liberal society (in the classical sense, not the welfare-state sense) fosters community by allowing people to associate in ways they find most meaningful. Indeed, one of the great things about a liberal, live-and-let-live city is that it ... Undermining Community for Specious Public Health Benefits
The Durbin Fee
Given the crucial role debit card “swipe” fees played in causing the recent financial crisis, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin insisted that the Dodd-Frank law (you know, the one that left Fannie and Freddie untouched) impose price controls on debit card transactions. Ben Bernanke, who apparently doesn’t have enough on his plate, was tasked with determining banks’ processing and fraud-related costs ... The Durbin Fee
Competing Against Bundled Discounts: Lessons from Regional Airlines
Flying back from a hiking trip to spectacular Glacier National Park (see pics below the fold), I overheard a flight attendant say something that made me think of, what else?, bundled discounts. “We also fly for Delta,” the United flight attendant told the woman in front of me. That’s when I realized I was really flying on ... Competing Against Bundled Discounts: Lessons from Regional Airlines
The Efficiency of Metering Tie-Ins
Have you ever had to get on your hands and knees at Office Depot to find precisely the right printer cartridge? It’s maddening, no? Why can’t the printer manufacturers just settle on a single design configuration, the way lamp manufacturers use common light bulbs? You might think the printer manufacturer is trying to enhance its ... The Efficiency of Metering Tie-Ins
The Efficiency of Cable Bundling
As I noted in a post last month, the Ninth Circuit recently threw out an antitrust challenge to cable operators’ refusal to provide cable channels on an a la carte, rather than bundled, basis. (Josh also had some insightful comments on the Ninth Circuit’s Brantley decision.) In my post, I promised that I would later ... The Efficiency of Cable Bundling
