Free to Err? An Exchange on Behavioral Law and Economics at the Liberty Forum
Douglas Ginsburg and I have posted “Free to Err: Behavioral Law and Economics and its Implications for Liberty” on the new and very good Liberty Forum. Our contribution is based upon a more comprehensive analysis of the implications of behavioral law and economics for both economic welfare and liberty forthcoming in the Northwestern Law Review. ... Free to Err? An Exchange on Behavioral Law and Economics at the Liberty Forum
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
No, Nudge Was Not on Trial
Slate’s David Weigel ran an otherwise informative piece on Cass Sunstein’s testimony, as head of OIRA, at a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee. The headline? Nudge on Trial: Cass Sunstein Defends the White House Against a Republican Attack. From Weigel’s description of the hearing, there was some general hand wringing about whether there is ... No, Nudge Was Not on Trial
Richard Thaler’s Rejoinder to the TOTM Free to Choose Symposium
Editor’s Note: I invited Professor Thaler to respond to the TOTM Free to Choose Symposium, and he graciously accepted and offered the following response. Richard Thaler is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. I have now had a chance ... Richard Thaler’s Rejoinder to the TOTM Free to Choose Symposium
Free to Choose Wrapup
Thanks to all of the participants for the excellent posts over the last two days. There are a couple of excellent comment threads where the conversation continues, and I hope that over the next few days participants and readers will get a chance to comment on the posts. Indeed, if any of the participants feel ... Free to Choose Wrapup
Ginsburg and Wright on Behavioral Law and Economics: the Never-Ending Quest for a Third Way
Douglas Ginsburg is Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Joshua Wright is Associate Professor, George Mason University School of Law. In the brave new world contemplated by the advocates of government policies informed by behavioral law and economics, many more aspects of each individual’s life will be regulated, or more ... Ginsburg and Wright on Behavioral Law and Economics: the Never-Ending Quest for a Third Way
Ginsburg and Wright on A Taxonomy of Behavioral Law and Economics Skepticism
Douglas Ginsburg is Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Joshua Wright is Associate Professor, George Mason University School of Law. The behavioral economics research agenda is an ambitious one for several reasons. The first reason is that behavioral economics requires a theory “true” preferences aside from – and in opposition ... Ginsburg and Wright on A Taxonomy of Behavioral Law and Economics Skepticism
Judd Stone on Behavioral Economics, Administrative Agencies, and Unintended Consequences
Professors Henderson and Ribstein touch on two theoretical failures of the behavioralist movement which both reveal the prematurity of ‘behaviorally-informed’ regulatory proposals: the behavioralist assumptions that (1) behavioral biases theoretically necessitate, or at least enable, public intervention, and (2) governmental entities can net improve individual outcomes over the status quo of unfettered, if limited, human ... Judd Stone on Behavioral Economics, Administrative Agencies, and Unintended Consequences
Todd Henderson on Project Behavior: What the Battle is Really About
Todd Henderson is a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Lying in bed for the past day with a stomach bug, I’ve enjoyed reading the contributions of my friends and colleagues. Perhaps the wisest course would be to, like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character pretending to be a doctor in “Catch Me If ... Todd Henderson on Project Behavior: What the Battle is Really About
Erin O’Hara on The Free Market Side of Behavioral Law and Economics
Erin O’Hara is FedEx Research Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Law. Behavioral law and economics (“BLE”) can influence legal policy analysis and regulation in many ways. On balance, it is not at all clear that this new paradigm undermines a policy commitment to markets. From one vantage point, the BLE movement can be said ... Erin O’Hara on The Free Market Side of Behavioral Law and Economics
Stephen Bainbridge on Mandatory Disclosure: A Behavioral Analysis
Stephen Bainbridge is the William D. Warren Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Mandatory disclosure is a—maybe the—defining characteristic of U.S. securities regulation. Issuers selling securities in a public offering must file a registration statement with the SEC containing detailed disclosures, and thereafter comply with the periodic disclosure regime. Although the New Deal-era ... Stephen Bainbridge on Mandatory Disclosure: A Behavioral Analysis
Sprigman and Buccafusco on Behavioral Law and Economics and the Road from Lab to Law
Christopher Sprigman is Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Christopher J. Buccafusco is Assistant Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law In our second post, we want to discuss some of the implications of the study (the details of which we described in our first post). One of the consistent concerns about ... Sprigman and Buccafusco on Behavioral Law and Economics and the Road from Lab to Law
