• Table of Contents
    • Abstract
    • Keywords
    • Article
      • 1 . Property law
        • Justification and emergence of property rights
        • Division of property rights
        • Public property and its acquisition; takings and compensation
        • Acquisition of property in unowned things
        • Acquisition of good title when property is sold
        • Adverse possession
        • Constraints on sale of property
        • Externalities
        • Property rights in information
        • Property rights in labels
      • 2 . Liability for accidents
        • Incentives to take care
        • Level of activity
        • Product liability
        • Risk-bearing and insurance
        • Administrative costs
      • 3 Contracts
        • General reasons for contracts
        • Contract formation
        • Incomplete nature of contracts and their less-than-rigorous enforcement
        • Interpretation of contracts
        • Damage measures for breach of contract
        • Specific performance as a remedy for breach
        • Renegotiation of contracts
        • Legal overriding of contracts
      • 4 . Litigation
        • Suit
        • Settlement versus trial
        • Litigation expenditures
        • Other topics
      • 5 . Public law enforcement and criminal law
        • Rationale of public enforcement
        • Basic framework for analysing public enforcement
        • Fines
        • Imprisonment
        • Fines versus imprisonment
        • Fault-based liability
        • Incapacitation
        • Other issues
        • Criminal law
      • 6 . Criticism of economic analysis of law
        • Description of behaviour
        • Distribution of income
        • Concerns for fairness
        • Efficiency of judge-made law
    • See Also
    • Bibliography
    • How to cite this article

law, economic analysis of

A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell
From The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition, 2008
Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume
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Abstract

This article surveys the economic analysis of five primary fields of law: property law; liability for accidents; contract law; litigation; and public enforcement and criminal law. It also briefly considers some criticisms of the economic analysis of law.
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Keywords

adverse possession; asymmetric information; Becker, G.; Bentham, J.; bona fide purchase rule; Coase, R.; collective action; compensated takings; contract formation; contractual interpretation; copyright; corrective tax; criminal law; damage measures; Demsetz, H.; deterrence; direct regulation; disclosure of information; due care; eminent domain; expectation measure of damages; fairness; fault-based liability; finders-keepers rule; fines; first-party insurance; good title; hold-out problem; imprisonment; incapacitation; incomplete contracts; injunction; justice; labels; land registries; law and economics; liability; liability insurance; litigation; moral hazard; negligence rule; original ownership rule; patents; Posner, R.; possessory rights; product liability; property rights; public enforcement of law; public property; punishment; risk; risk aversion; risk-bearing; settlement vs trial; social norms; social welfare; specific performance; strict liability; suit; takings; tort law; trade secret law; trademarks; unilateral accident model; utilitarianism
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Article

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How to cite this article

Mitchell Polinsky, A. and Steven Shavell. "law, economic analysis of." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 19 May 2013 <http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_L000038> doi:10.1057/9780230226203.0940

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