Description
Book SynopsisThis unique collection of largely unpublished papers brings together the founding fathers of law and economics to provide their own views on the origins and intellectual history of the field. Law and economics emerged as a separate field of scholarship during the early 1960s, fueled by two seminal papers, one by Ronald Coase and one by Guido Calabresi. The ideas generated by scholars researching in the field have deeply influenced the major disciplines of economics and the law.
These 16 essays (including three by Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences) provide an impressive blend of differing experiences and varying perspectives, reflecting on the intellectual foundations of the field, its early struggles for recognition, and its remarkable advance during the last four decades of the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first. The essays clearly outline, and contribute new insights into, all of the central issues of this still vibrant research programme. A unifying theme of the book is the central importance attached by each scholar to scientific analysis, rather than to any particular ideology or dogma.
This book provides an absorbing intellectual history of law and economics, and will be a fascinating read for academics and researchers with an interest in law and economics, the history of economic thought, public choice and public policy.
Trade Review'This volume is very worthwhile to read for getting a much better understanding of the US origins of law and economics.' -- Wolfgang Kerber, Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik
'I recommend this book in the strongest terms to all scholars interested in the history of law and economics. . . for bringing together these essays and for attempting to place the field in historical perspective, the editors deserve our thanks. . . For insider perspectives on the evolution of the field, to get a sense for the different conceptions of what it means to do economics, to do law, and to do law and economics, the book makes for a most interesting read.' -- Steven G. Medema, Review of Austrian Economics
'Scholars at all stages of their careers will be interested in seeing how the field of law and economics has developed over almost a half century - the topics that were of interest, the methodology used, the ways in which problems were defined, tackled, solved. This is a major contribution to the intellectual history of economics and of law and economics.' -- Donald N. Dewees, History of Political Economy
'This book of specially commissioned, original papers, by two majorTable of ContentsContents: PART I: INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS 1. An Intellectual History of Law and Economics: 1739–2003 Charles K. Rowley 2. Methodological Debates in Law and Economics: The Changing Contours of a Discipline Francesco Parisi 3. The Fire of Truth: A Remembrance of Law and Economics at Chicago, 1932–1970 Edmund W. Kitch PART II: ESSAYS BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS 4. The Economics Way of Looking at Behavior Gary S. Becker 5. Cost, Choice, and Catallaxy: An Evaluation of Two Related but Divergent Virginia Paradigms James M. Buchanan 6. The Pointlessness of Pareto: Carrying Coase Further Guido Calabresi 7. The Relevance of Transaction Costs in the Economic Analysis of Law Ronald H. Coase 8. The Confluence of Justice and Efficiency in the Economic Analysis of Law Robert D. Cooter 9. Toward a Theory of Property Rights II: The Competition Between Private and Collective Ownership Harold Demsetz 10. The Economist in Spite of Himself Richard A. Epstein 11. The Art of Law and Economics: An Autobiographical Essay William M. Landes 12. How Law and Economics was Marketed in a Hostile World: A Very Personal History Henry G. Manne 13. The Law and Economics Movement: From Bentham to Becker Richard A. Posner 14. The Rise of Law and Economics: A Memoir of the Early Years George L. Priest 15. Why was the Common Law Efficient? Paul H. Rubin 16. Law Versus Morality as Regulators of Conduct Steven Shavell 17. Journeys Across the Divides Michael J. Trebilcock 18. The Case Against the Common Law Gordon Tullock 19. Why Law, Economics, and Organization? Oliver E. Williamson Index
