Research in Law and Economics – serie

This work is part of a series focusing on research into law and economics. It discusses a variety of topics in the field.

"Research in Law and Economics" is a highly respected source of proactive, original perspectives on law and economics. For the researcher, this latest volume offers a diverse set of papers, each one a constructive contribution. The papers address: how the Supreme Court can clarify and rationalize the payment of pre-judgement interest; what is meant or should be meant by economic efficiency; the length of various statutes of limitations for accident cases; implications of the court congestion hypothesis of Posner and Priest; the efficiency of medical malpractice insurance; and the effects of hospital competition on Medicaid share.

"An Introduction to the Law and Economics of Environmental Policy" emphasises the importance of institutional design in addressing social problems. Three important issues concerning institutional design are: policies, instruments, and enforcement. This volume surveys each of the issues, and emphasises the common themes arising in optimal institutional design. These themes include the cost of complex institutional design, and the role of private institutions attaining social objects. This book will be particularly useful to law schools, departments of government, policy or economics, environmental managers and insurance companies.

This volume contains ten papers, by many prominent authors, examining antitrust issues of current interest. The first paper summarizes the other papers and presents original research on the meaning of consumer welfare and the sources of buyer power. The next five articles evaluate older antitrust cases to determine whether the decisions reached, the relief ordered, or both, enhanced consumer welfare. The seventh paper describes a new measure of efficiency that gives greater weight to consumer harm and applies it to a recent merger. The next paper explains a new way in which vertical foreclosure can enhance the market power of an upstream supplier. The ninth article refines an innovative technique for identifying substitutes among a set of differentiated products. The tenth paper confronts a contentious policy issue - the treatment of patent settlements in which the patent holder pays the challenger to exit the market - and concludes that they should be per se illegal.

Written by leading experts in the field, each chapter in this book examines in depth a topic in law and economics. John Connor begins by describing and evaluating the results of his extensive survey of reports of cartel overcharges. Dennis Weisman models the price effects of mergers that not only increase concentration in the relevant market but also increase the merged firms' participation in other, complementary markets. Malcolm Coate and Mark Williams develop a superior method for calculating critical loss in markets that are relatively homogenous and competitive premerger. Zhiqi Chen surveys recent developments in economic theories of buyer power and creates a general framework for antitrust analysis. Finally Thomas J. Miceli and Kathern Segerson, given the difficulty of collecting damages after a long latency period, examine the desirability of granting toxic exposure victims an independent cause of action for medical monitoring at the time of exposure. They show that such a cause of action increase incentives for injurer care but only at the cost of greater litigation cost and the reluctance of courts to adopt such a proposed cause of action reflect their awareness of this trade-off.

Since 1979 "Research in Law and Economics" has been presenting original research that explores the extent to which the constraints of law explain economic behavior and the role of economics in forming the law. Leading scholars, including Kenneth Arrow, Kenneth Elzinga, Victor Goldberg, Jack Hirschliefer, Paul Joskow, and Vernon Smith, have chosen "Research in Law and Economics" as the right forum for presenting their research. Now published bi-annually, each issue of "Research in Law and Economics" focuses on a timely and relevant topic. Such topics have included economics of environmental policy, urban property rights, antitrust and evolutionary models in economics and law. This volume focuses on cost-benefit analysis and the law, whereas the next special issue will concentrate on corporate finance

Since 1979 Research in Law and Economics has been presenting original research that explores the extent to which the constraints of law explain economic behavior and the role of economics in forming the law. The first chapter in this volume proposes three different definitions for market power from an antitrust perspective. Chapter two suggests a new means of measuring market power by moving away from traditional indicators of averaging industry profits. The third chapter is an analysis of efforts exerted and utilities obtained in a double lawsuit. Chapter four surveys recent developments in economics of contract interpretation. The fifth chapter examines the impact of changes in foreign exchange legislation on the levels of R&D undertaken by pharmaceutical firms in India. Chapter six addresses the role of transaction costs in explaining governance in environmental economics can play in helping choose environmental policy tools. The final chapter is an examination of economic evidence relating to the allegations in litigation against cigarette manufacturers.

"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.

The Economics and Regulation of Digital Markets presents new findings and perspectives from leading international scholars on three critical areas of developing government policies. The first three contributions analyse digital markets and their regulation. Next is a discussion of the divergence of expert and public views on European democracy. The final contribution provides an analysis of the effects of firing notification procedures on wage growth. The functioning of digital markets, the state of democracy around the world, and rules that affect wages raise questions about the proper roles of government rules. This volume provides insights into these pressing and important issues.