Law & Economics (GED75238)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	3,4	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	5 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: A	Mireia Artigot Golobardes	Derecho	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language

None

None

The course objective is to analyze the incentives created by laws and legal institutions, as well as their implications for economic activity in a globalized world. We will use microeconomic models to conduct positive and normative analysis of certain legal rules and complement the analysis with real case studies.

The course objective is to analyze the incentives created by laws and legal institutions, as well as their implications for economic activity in a globalized world. We will use microeconomic models to conduct positive and normative analysis of certain legal rules and complement the analysis with real case studies.

The economic analysis of law encompasses two related enterprises. The first one is positive. It uses economic ideas to understand the behavioral consequences of changes in legal rules. This is an application of the traditional price theory. The second enterprise is normative and controversial. It appraises legal rules to determine the extent to which they meet the social goal of efficiency, an application of welfare economics.

We will study the economics of the law to analyze, for example, how legal rules affect (i) implicit prices for consumer and firm behavior, (ii) the distribution of resources, and (iii) economic efficiency. While students will obtain a background on the law surrounding property, contracts, torts and the judicial process, the content will focus on how legal rules impact consumers and producers, and whether these rules and regulations enhance the efficient use of economic resources.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to analyze the creation of incentives by the legal system in important areas of the law such as Contract Law, Tort Law and Corporate Law, and have an overview of the major differences in legal systems (common versus civil law). This course will address and discuss questions such as whether zero is the socially best quantity of pollution?, whether there a way to realize the benefits of patents without their monopoly costs?

1. 1. Introduction to Law and Economics

2. 2. Property rules and liability rules

3. 3. Law and Economics of Contracts

4.

5. 4. Analyzing the unexpected: Economic analysis of Torts

Lectures will be based on readings that will be provided beforehand and that students will be assumed to have done before the lectures. The lectures will be based on discussions between students and the lecturer. In this sense, the course will use the Socratic method and emphasize the interaction and participation of the students in the classroom.

Lectures will present the class material but also will discuss case studies as well as court judgments or academic articles that will support the class material.

- Robert Cooter and Thomas Ulen, Law and Economics, Sixth Edition (U.S.: Pearson Education, Inc.) 2011.

- Polinsky, Mitchell A. and Shavell, Steven (2007) Handbook of Law and Economics (volumes I and II), Elsevier.

- David Friedman, Law's Order: What Economics has to do with Law and why it matters.

References on Digital Economy (forthcoming)

Group	Teacher	Department
Sec: A	Mireia Artigot Golobardes	Derecho

Group	Teacher	Department