NOTE THAT YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO TURN IN A DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC YOU HAVE TENTATIVELY SELECTED ON SEPTEMBER 21 SO YOU NEED TO START THINKING ABOUT YOUR PAPER TOPIC IMMEDIATELY. YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE SELECTED THE TOPIC FOR YOUR PAPER BY OCTOBER 5. RECALL THAT YOUR MIDTERM WHICH REQUIRES YOU TO MAKE SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS ON YOUR PAPER IS DUE OCTOBER 24.

This is a list of possible topics for your research paper. It should stimulate your thinking. You are in no way limited to the topics listed here.

I have placed a number of papers from previous semesters on reserve. Looking at a few of these papers should give you a firmer grasp of what is required and may help you select a topic for your paper.

The suggestions here range from general areas to specific cases, many of which were the subject of students' papers from previous semesters. Topics are listed for each of the areas we cover during the semester, but are not limited to these fields. Where possible, general references have been listed for your further exploration.

Property

See Ronald Coase, Journal of Law and Economics, 1960 and related articles which test the theorem (e.g., Ellickson, R. "Of Coase and Cattle," Stanford Law Review, February, 1986). In the past students have conducted experiments and case studies designed to test Coase's theorem.

1. Intellectual Property--patents, copyrights, trademarks.

K. Dam, "Some Economic Considerations in the Intellectual Property Protection of Software," Chicago Working Paper in Law and Economics (on reserve).

Economides, "The Economics of Trademarks," Trade Mark Reporter, Vol. 78, 1988, pp. 573-539.

P. Tandon, "Optimal Patents with Compulsory Licensing," Journal of Political Economy, vol. 90, 1982, pp. 470-486.

Landes and Posner, "Trademark Law: An Economic Perspective" (on reserve)

Kenneth Dam, "The Economic Underpinnings of Patent Law," Journal of Legal Studies, January, 1994, p247ff.

Polaroid V. Kodak, US District Court-Mass, Civil Action no. 76-1634-MA.

2. Nuisance law and environmental issues.

a. Pollution control

V.P. Goldberg, "Recovery for Economic Loss Following the Exxon Valdez," Journal of Legal Studies, Vol.23 (1994), 1-40.

R.W. Hahn and R.N. Stavins, "Incentive-Based Environmental Regulation: A New Era from an Old Idea," Ecology Law Quarterly , Vol. 18 (1991) (on reserve).

L.E. Ruff, "The Economic Common Sense of Pollution," The Public Interest, Vol. 19 (Spring, 1970) pp. 69-85.

National Institute of Justice, "Environmental Crime Prosecution," Dec, 1994 and the references therein (on reserve)

b. Mineral, natural gas, and fishing rights and the governing laws in either national or international territories.

See relevant chapter of W. Hirsch, Law and Economics: An Introductory Analysis.(on reserve).

3. Issues concerning zoning and eminent domain

a. National parks and the problem of the commons

b. Zoning and eminent domain

T. Miceli and K. Segerson, "Regulatory Takings: When Should Compensation be Paid?," Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 23 (June, 1994), 749ff.

See relevant chapter of W. Hirsch, Law and Economics: An Introductory Analysis.

Contracts

V.P. Goldberg, ed. Readings in the Economics of Contract Law , 1989.

1. Surrogacy

a. The Baby M case

G.J. Annas, "At Law-Baby M: Babies (and Justice) for Sale," Hastings Center Report, June 1987.

R. Posner, "The Ethics and Economics of Enforcing Surrogate Motherhood," Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy 5(21):1989.

S.G. Yak, "A Contractual Analysis of Surrogate Motherhood and Proposed Solutions," Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review , Vol 24 (Jan., 1991) pp. 395-419.

Richard Epstein, Enforcement of Surrogate Contracts

M.F. Brinig, "A Maternalistic Approach to Surrogacy: Comment on Richard Epstein's Enforcement of Surrogate Contracts(on reserve).

2. Industrial contracts

a. Rail freight

b. Natural resources

c. Intangible contracts---I have a set of intangible contracts for the SEC which you could analyze.

d. Franchise contracts, MacDonald's, Pizza Hut, et al.

F. Lafontaine, "Contractual Arrangements as Signaling Devices: Evidence from Franchising," Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, Vol. 9 (October, 1993) 230ff. (On reserve)

3. Adoption

See Mary Ann Glendon, Abortion and Divorce in Western Law, 1987.

Landes and Posner, "The Economics of the Baby Shortage," Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 7, (1978).

M. Brinig, "The Effect of Transactions Costs on the Market for Babies," Seton Hall Legislative Journal, Vol 18 (1994) 553-579.

M. Trebilcock and R. Keshvani, "The Role of Private Orderings," University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 41 (1991) 533ff.

4. Landlord-tenant laws

a. Eviction

b. Rent control

c. Housing subsidies

See relevant chapter of W. Hirsch, Law and Economics: An Introductory Analysis.

Tort

See Litan and Winston, Liability Perspectives and Policy, 1988 (on reserve).

Symposium, The Economics of Liability, Journal of Economic Perspective, Vol. 5 (Summer, 1991) (on reserve).

S. Smith et al. "Tort Cases in Large Counties," (Washington DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995). This is brief and will give you an idea of the types of tort cases and how they are handled.

1. Medical malpractice

H.S. Farber and M. White, "A Comparison of Formal and Informal Dispute Resolution in Medical Malpractice," Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 23 (June, 1994) 777ff. (On reserve).

See articles by P. Danzon, Behavioral Sciences and the Law , 1983 and her book, Medical Malpractice, 1985 (on reserve).

F. A. Sloan et al., Suing for Medical Malpractice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)

2. Product liability and industrial accidents

a. cigarette and alcohol industry, recent court cases

b. Ford Pinto

c. Agent Orange

d. Mansville and other asbestos cases

e. Love Canal and other toxic waste cases

3. The performance of the insurance industry

a. No fault automobile insurance

b. Moral hazard

4. Occupational safety regulations and workman's compensation

Crime

See Schmidt and Witte, An Economic Analysis of Crime and Justice (on reserve).

1. Optimal sanctions-- deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation and recidivism

a. Sentencing, Capital punishment, etc.

R. Paternoster and A.M. Kazyaka, "The Administration of the

Death Penalty in South Carolina: Experiences Over the First Few Years." South Carolina Law Review. 39 (2): Winter 1988 (on reserve).

"Twenty Years of Sentencing Reform," Judicature, 1994 or 1995. I have asked the library to order a copy of this special issue.

b. Deterrence

H. Tauchen and A. Witte and H. Griesinger, "Criminal Deterrence: Revisiting the Issues with a Birth Cohort," Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1994 and the references cited therein.

c. Plea bargaining

Eric Monkkonen, Crime and Justice in American History (Westport: Meckler Publishing, 1991).

J. Reinganum, "Plea Bargaining and Prosecutorial Discretion," American Economic Review, Vol. 78 (September, 1988) pp. 713-725.

d. Imprisonment

There are two important issues here. First, spending for corrections is now one of the fasting growing areas of state expenditures. State expenditures on corrections are growing far more rapidly than state expenditures on education. You might study the effects or efficiency of this resource allocation.

There has also been a movement to privatize corrections. This has raised substantial controversy. Tennessee has produced a very favorable report on its private prisons, but private prisons in the New York area have been closed down for unreasonable conditions. You might study the pros and cons of public v. private provision of prisons.

2. Corporate crime

a. Insider trading

3. Drugs

a. Legalization

See Drug Research Bibliography on reserve

M. Kleiman, Against Excess New York: Basic Books, 1992

M. Krauss and E. Lazear, Searching for Alternative Drug-Control Policy in the United States Stanford, CA: Hoover Institute, 1991.

4. Black markets and the underground economy

See Simon and Witte, Beating the System. This book surveys the various sectors of the underground economy from prostitution to loan sharking. It contain chapters on major drug markets.

P. Reuter, et al. Money from Crime: A Study of the Economics of Drug Dealing in Washington, DC Santa Monica: Rand, 1990

5. Drugs and the Justice System

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Drugs, Crime and the Justice System, Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, 1992.

6. Domestic Violence

"The Dynamics of Domestic Violence," (with Helen Tauchen), AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Vol. 85, No. 2 (May, 1995) 414-418.

"Domestic Violence: A Non-random Affair" (with Helen Tauchen and Sharon Long), INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Vol. 32, No. 2 (May, 1991) 1-21. Reprinted in Nancy Folbre (ed.), THE ECONOMICS OF THE FAMILY, Cheltenham, UK:Edward Elgar Publishing,1995, forthcoming.

"Symposium on Domestic Violence," New England Law Review, Winter, 1993.

Family Law

See Mary Ann Glendon, The New Family and New Property, 1981.

M.A. Glendon, The Transformation of Family Law, 1989.

Glendon is the Vatican representative to the UN Woman's Conference in China.

1. Marriage and divorce

M. Brinig, "Marriage and Opportunism," Journal of Legal Studies, June, 1994, pp.869-894.

J. Carbone and M. F. Brinig, "Rethinking Marriage: Geminist Ideology, Economic Change and Divorce Reform," Tulane Law Review, May, 1991, pp. 953-1010.

Smith, B., The Partnership Theory of Marriage (on reserve).

a. Fault vs. no fault

Sugarman, S., Divorce reform (on reserve).

Mary Ann Glendon, Abortion and Divorce in Western Law, 1987 (on reserve).

A.M. Parkman. No-Fault divorce: What Went Wrong?

"Symposium on Divorce and Feminist Legal Theory," Georgetown Law Journal, September, 1994.

b. Division of assets-prenuptial agreements

D. Polsby and M. Zelder, "Risk-adjusted Valuation of professional Degrees in Divorce," Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 23 ( Jan. 1994) 273- 286.

c. Custody and support of the children

L. Argys et al., "Can the Family Support Act Put Some Life into Dead Beat Dads: An Analysis of Child Support Guidelines, Award Rates and Levels," Paper presented at the Meetings of the American Economic Association, January, 1995. (On reserve)

See A.J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, 1981.

L.J. Weitzman, The Divorce Revolution: The Unexpected Social and Economic Consequences for Women and Children in America, 1985.

2. Parents responsibilities and the rights of children

Tax Law

J.Roth, J. Scholz and A. Witte, Tax Compliance: An Agenda for Research.

J. Stiglitz, Economics of the Public Sector.

L. Kaplow and S. Shavell, "Why the Legal System is Less Efficient than the Income Tax in Redistributing Income," Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 23 (June, 1994) 667ff.

1. Transfer pricing of multinational companies

H. Ault and D. Bradford, "Taxing Interantional Income: An Analysis of the US system and Its Economic Premises," A.Razin and J. Slemrod Taxation in the Global Economy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).

2. Federal estate and gift taxation

3. Taxation of capital

NBER, Taxes and Captial Formation (Cambridge, MA: NBER).

4. Some current tax issues

George Yin et al, "Improving the Delivery of Benefits to the Working Poor: Proposals to Reform the Earned Income Tax Credit Program," The American Journal of Tax Policy, Fall, 1994.

Henry J. Aaron et al., "Brookings Economists Share Views on Republican Initiatives" Tax Notes, January 23, 1995, p.585-593.

R. Hall and A. Rabushka, The Flat Tax, 2nd edition, (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1995).

Other ideas

1. Comparison of Posner and other "economic judges" as judges and scholars

R.E. Epstein, "Professor, Now Judge- A Tribute to Richard A. Posner," Journal of Legal Studies 12(1): 1983.

G.M. Cohen, "Comments: Posnerian Jurisprudence and Economic Analysis of Law: The View from the Bench," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 133 (1985) pp. 1117-1166.

W. Samuels and N. Mercuro, "Posnerian Law and Economics on the Bench," International Review of Law and Economics , Vol. 4 (1984) pp. 107-130.

2. The interaction of jurisprudence and economics

3. The value of life and limb

See Mishan, Cost-Benefit Analysis, 1982, Chapters 45 and 46.

4. Bankruptcy

T. A. Sullivan, et al., As We Forgive our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).

I.A. Domowitz and T.L Eovaldi, "The Impact of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 on Consumer Bankruptcy," Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 36 (October, 1993), 803ff.

For additional insights skim issues of the Journal of Law and Economics, the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Law and Economic Organization, the International Review of Law and Economics, Research in Law and Economics(a book published annually) and Law and Contemporary Problems .

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