James Langenfeld - Böcker

"Legal and economic analyses overlap and interact in many areas. Recent U.S. Supreme Court and lower court decisions on class action lawsuits clearly focus on the critical role that economic analysis plays in determining the outcome of class actions. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes and Comcast Corp. v. Behrend have made national headlines, raising the bar in class certification for showing common impact and preponderance through expert testimony. These decisions have turned on the adequacy of the analyses put forth by expert economists, finding the analyses of the plaintiffs' economists to be insufficient. The decisions will have significant implications for use of expert testifiers in class certification and in estimation of monetary damages, presenting challenges to both attorneys and economists in antitrust and other class actions. This book focuses on the changing landscape of class action law and its interaction with the economic analysis of key issues in class actions. Articles examine the elements of class action law from diverse viewpoints, featuring defendant and plaintiff perspectives, concerning domestic and international law, and written by lawyers and economists."

This volume addresses a variety of topics where economic concepts are intertwined with important legal and policy issues in North America and Europe. Five articles involve analyses of competition issues, including economic plus factors in price fixing cases, the impact of refusals to deal on product quality, and market definition for intermediate goods. There are also articles on legal -cost allocation and patent hold ups, the strategic use of licensing commitments, and cost sharing's impact on bankruptcy. Finally, there is a very detailed empirical analysis of the monetary cost of raising children, which has implications for policies of the United States Department of Agriculture.

This volume of Research in Law and Economics contains articles that address important legal and economic developments in the areas of healthcare, intellectual property and labor settlements, competitive effects, cartel overcharges, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). Four of the articles were initially presented at a conference on healthcare competition in Washington, D.C., which was sponsored by the American Antitrust Institute, this journal, and Navigant Economics. These articles explore practices that are under challenge in pharmaceuticals, where the Federal Trade Commission has been extremely active, as well as issues involving hospital and health insurance mergers. They are followed by a long and detailed discussion of the current and historic role of economists and economic analysis at the Federal Trade Commission. The next two articles analyze different aspects of the French economy, pre-trial labor settlements and the impact of e-commerce on franchisees. The volume ends with three technical economics articles – one on “upward pricing pressure”, one on estimating price increases in cartel cases, and one critiquing a “meta-analysis” of research on the effectiveness of U.S. merger regulation. Taken together, these articles raise questions about appropriate competition policy, how to evaluate settlements and other firm behavior, and where economics and competition policy are headed.

Law and economics research has had an enormous impact on the laws of contracts, torts, property, crimes, corporations, and antitrust, as well as public regulation and fundamental rights. The Law and Economics of Patent Damages, Antitrust, and Legal Process examines several areas of important research by a variety of international scholars. It contains technical papers on the appropriate way to estimate damages in patent disputes, as well as methods for evaluating relevant markets and vertically integrated firms when determining the competitive effects of mergers and other actions. There are also papers on the implication of different legal processes, regulations, and liability rules on consumer welfare, which range from the impact of delays in legal decisions in labour cases in France to issues of criminal liability related to the use of artificial intelligence. This volume of Research in Law and Economics is a must-read for researchers and professionals of patent damages, antitrust, labour, and legal process.

The Law and Economics of Privacy, Personal Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Incomplete Monitoring presents new findings and perspectives from leading international scholars on several emerging areas issues in legal and economic research. The collection contains new theoretical papers on privacy, the protection of personal data, the use of regulatory monitoring under legal standards versus rules, a study of the properties of market efficiency in securities fraud litigation, as well as an analysis of non-exclusionary price floors. It also contains an empirical paper on the relationship between uncertainty of patent approval of artificial intelligence applications and the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. Finally, the volume features a law-and-economics assessment of the Chinese financial system within the context of the trade-off between centralized control and rapid growth.This 30th volume of Research in Law and Economics showcases the cutting edge theoretical and empirical findings for researchers and professionals considering these complex issues intersecting law, technology, and economics.