IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/afd/wpaper/2302.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Richard A. Posner: From Public Choice Theory to Economic Analysis of Law (1969-1973)

Author

Listed:
  • Sophie Harnay

    (EconomiX (UMR 7235), UPL, Université Paris Nanterre, CNRS, 200 avenue de la République, 92001 Nanterre cedex, France)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to explore how Richard A. Posner began to focus on judges and courts at the turn of the 1960s and early 1970s, when his focus had previously been mostly on regulation, antitrust law, and administrative agencies. We argue that Posner’s writings during this short period are critical to understanding his intellectual trajectory as they are the source of the pioneering research program that would be known as economic analysis of law a few years later. We thus emphasize the continuity between Posner’s early work of the 1969-1973 period, mostly inspired by public choice theory, and his later work, and show that the former obviously paved the way for the latter.

Suggested Citation

  • Sophie Harnay, 2023. "Richard A. Posner: From Public Choice Theory to Economic Analysis of Law (1969-1973)," Working Papers AFED 23-02, Association Francaise d'Economie du Droit (AFED).
  • Handle: RePEc:afd:wpaper:2302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://afed.ovh/RePEc/afd/wpaper/AFED-WP-23-02.pdf
    File Function: First version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harnay, Sophie & Marciano, Alain, 2009. "Posner, Economics And The Law: From “Law And Economics” To An Economic Analysis Of Law," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(2), pages 215-232, June.
    2. Landes, William M & Posner, Richard A, 1976. "Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 249-307, August.
    3. Richard A. Posner, 1974. "Theories of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 5(2), pages 335-358, Autumn.
    4. Richard A. Posner, 1975. "The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Kai A. Konrad & Arye L. Hillman (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 2, pages 45-65, Springer.
    5. Landes, William M & Posner, Richard A, 1975. "The Independent Judiciary in an Interest-Group Perspective," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 875-901, December.
    6. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    7. William Shughart & Fred McChesney, 2010. "Public choice theory and antitrust policy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 385-406, March.
    8. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bel, Germà, 2020. "Public versus private water delivery, remunicipalization and water tariffs," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Joseph T. Mahoney & Anita M. McGahan & Christos N. Pitelis, 2009. "Perspective ---The Interdependence of Private and Public Interests," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(6), pages 1034-1052, December.
    3. Kwasi Gyau BAFFOUR AWUAH & Felix N. HAMMOND & Colin A. BOOTH & Jessica E. LAMOND, 2014. "Evolution And Development Of Urban Land Use Planning: Analysis From Human Action Theory Perspective," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 9(2), pages 35-67, May.
    4. Stavins, Robert & Keohane, Nathaniel & Revesz, Richard, 1997. "The Positive Political Economy of Instrument Choice in Environmental Policy," RFF Working Paper Series dp-97-25, Resources for the Future.
    5. Bruno Deffains & Marie Obidzinski, 2009. "Real Options Theory for Law Makers," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 75(1), pages 93-117.
    6. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    7. Silvia Sacchetti, 2015. "Inclusive and Exclusive Social Preferences: A Deweyan Framework to Explain Governance Heterogeneity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 473-485, February.
    8. Mirucki, Jean, 1980. "Comportement de l'entreprise réglementée: étude de l'hypothèse Averch-Johnson [Behavior of the Regulated Firm: A Study of the Averch-Johnson Hypothesis]," MPRA Paper 27669, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 1982.
    9. Schuh, G. Edward, 1981. "Economics And International Relations A Conceptual Framework," 1981 Annual Meeting, July 26-29, Clemson, South Carolina 279342, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Christensen, Hans B. & Liu, Lisa Yao & Maffett, Mark, 2020. "Proactive financial reporting enforcement and shareholder wealth," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    11. Keith Jakee & Leonie Allen, 1998. "Destructive Competition or Competition Destroyed? Regulatory Theory and the History of Irish Road Transportation Legislation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 13-50, January.
    12. Pistor, Katharina & Xu, Cheng-Gang, 2002. "Law enforcement under incomplete law: theory and evidence from financial market regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3748, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. VanHoose, David, 2011. "Systemic Risk and Macroprudential Bank Regulation: A Critical Appraisal," Journal of Financial Transformation, Capco Institute, vol. 33, pages 45-60.
    14. Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Dennis A. Yao, 2018. "Integrated Strategy: Residual Market and Exchange Imperfections as the Foundation of Sustainable Competitive Advantage," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 463-480, June.
    15. Camille Chaserant & Sophie Harnay, 2013. "The regulation of quality in the market for legal services: Taking the heterogeneity of legal services seriously," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 10(2), pages 267-291, August.
    16. Silvers, Roger, 2020. "Cross-border cooperation between securities regulators," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    17. Andrade, Tiago, 2014. "The impact of regulation, privatization and competition on gas infrastructure investments," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 82-85.
    18. G. P. Manish & Colin O’Reilly, 2019. "Banking regulation, regulatory capture and inequality," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 145-164, July.
    19. Alain Marciano, 2007. "Value and exchange in law and economics: Buchanan versus posner," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 187-200, September.
    20. Baum, Donald R. & Cooper, Rachel & Lusk-Stover, Oni, 2018. "Regulating market entry of low-cost private schools in Sub-Saharan Africa: Towards a theory of private education regulation," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 100-112.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    R. A. Posner; economic analysis of law; public choice; judicial decision-making; regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • K2 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:afd:wpaper:2302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AFED (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afeddea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.