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Economics
The Influence of Judicial Background on Case Outcomes
January 28, 2016
It is widely believed that the background and worldview of judges influence their decisions. This article uses the fact that judges are assigned their cases randomly to assess the effect of judicial background on the outcome of cases from the day-to-day docket in three federal trial courts. Unlike the political science findings of ideological influence in published opinions, we find little evidence that judges differ in their decisions with respect to the mass of case outcomes. Characteristics of the judges...
January 28, 2016
It is widely believed that the background and worldview of judges influence their decisions. This article uses the fact that judges are assigned their cases randomly to assess the effect of judicial background on the outcome of cases from the day-to-day docket in three federal trial courts. Unlike the political science findings of ideological influence in published opinions, we find little evidence that judges differ in their decisions with respect to the mass of case outcomes. Characteristics of the judges...
What Shapes Perceptions of the Federal Court System?
January 28, 2016
Two hundred years is a long time. It is too long after formation of a court system to ask such basic questions as (1) what cases occupy the system, and (2) whether even informed professionals have a reasonable picture of what goes on within the system. Nonetheless, continuing debate about the volume and makeup of litigation in general and of federal court litigation in particular requires legal scholars to address these questions. Professor Marc Galanter's work on the litigation explosion questions...
January 28, 2016
Two hundred years is a long time. It is too long after formation of a court system to ask such basic questions as (1) what cases occupy the system, and (2) whether even informed professionals have a reasonable picture of what goes on within the system. Nonetheless, continuing debate about the volume and makeup of litigation in general and of federal court litigation in particular requires legal scholars to address these questions. Professor Marc Galanter's work on the litigation explosion questions...
Alemanno on Public & Private Nudging
January 12, 2016
Alberto Alemanno (HEC Paris; NYU School of Law) has posted The Future of Behavioural Change: Balancing Public Nudging vs Private Nudging (2nd AIM Lecture, May 6, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Public authorities, including the European Union and its Member States, are increasingly interested in exploiting behavioral insights through public action. They increasingly do so through choice architecture, i.e. the alteration of the environment of choice surrounding a particular decision making context...
January 12, 2016
Alberto Alemanno (HEC Paris; NYU School of Law) has posted The Future of Behavioural Change: Balancing Public Nudging vs Private Nudging (2nd AIM Lecture, May 6, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Public authorities, including the European Union and its Member States, are increasingly interested in exploiting behavioral insights through public action. They increasingly do so through choice architecture, i.e. the alteration of the environment of choice surrounding a particular decision making context...
Kiser: The Emotionally Attentive Lawyer: Balancing the Rule of Law with the Realities of Human Behavior
December 15, 2015
This article explores the tension between the law and emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence is unjustifiably...
December 15, 2015
This article explores the tension between the law and emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence is unjustifiably...
Behind the SEC’s Bet on Big Data
December 13, 2015
According to charges made public in August, the two young Ukrainians hacked into newswire services, accessed hundreds of corporate...
December 13, 2015
According to charges made public in August, the two young Ukrainians hacked into newswire services, accessed hundreds of corporate...
Empowering People to Choose Wisely by Democratizing Mindfulness and Thinking Tools
December 2, 2015
Making choices (wisely) can be difficult; demand focused, cognitive attention; produce delayed, noisy feedback; require careful and clear thinking; and quite often trigger anxiety, stress, or strong, negative emotions. A large body of empirical, experimental, and field research finds that people often make choices resulting in outcomes that are suboptimal as judged by the very people making those choices. These studies have led to the popularity of the idea of nudging people to achieve better outcomes...
December 2, 2015
Making choices (wisely) can be difficult; demand focused, cognitive attention; produce delayed, noisy feedback; require careful and clear thinking; and quite often trigger anxiety, stress, or strong, negative emotions. A large body of empirical, experimental, and field research finds that people often make choices resulting in outcomes that are suboptimal as judged by the very people making those choices. These studies have led to the popularity of the idea of nudging people to achieve better outcomes...
Unquantified Benefits and Bayesian Cost-Benefit Analysis
October 29, 2015
As the last act of its 2014-2015 Term, the Supreme Court struck down a major EPA regulation limiting mercury emissions from electrical power plants. The formal legal reason was EPA’s failure to consider the costs of regulating mercury before deciding that it must be regulated. But the costs of the regulation — $9.6 billion — would not have attracted such attention if they had not seemed so disproportionate to the regulatory benefits. The only mercury-related benefits that EPA could measure...
October 29, 2015
As the last act of its 2014-2015 Term, the Supreme Court struck down a major EPA regulation limiting mercury emissions from electrical power plants. The formal legal reason was EPA’s failure to consider the costs of regulating mercury before deciding that it must be regulated. But the costs of the regulation — $9.6 billion — would not have attracted such attention if they had not seemed so disproportionate to the regulatory benefits. The only mercury-related benefits that EPA could measure...
Mediation Games
June 30, 2015
John Nash died this week, in a tragic car accident. John Nash was the Nobel-prize winning mathematician whose theory of non-cooperative games published in 1950 has been described as one of the top ten ideas in economics in the 20th century. His theory introduced and explored the concept of what is known as Nash equilibrium. According to the New York Times obituary, Nash equilibrium provides a conceptually simple but powerful mathematical tool for analysing a wide range of competitive situations,...
June 30, 2015
John Nash died this week, in a tragic car accident. John Nash was the Nobel-prize winning mathematician whose theory of non-cooperative games published in 1950 has been described as one of the top ten ideas in economics in the 20th century. His theory introduced and explored the concept of what is known as Nash equilibrium. According to the New York Times obituary, Nash equilibrium provides a conceptually simple but powerful mathematical tool for analysing a wide range of competitive situations,...
World Bank Hiring Behavioral Economist and Behavioral Scientist
June 5, 2015
As part of a broader World Bank Group effort to incorporate recent advances in the social and behavioral sciences into its projects and programs, and following upon the well-received World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior, the World Bank is recruiting an exceptional behavioral economist to work in its new Behavioral Innovations Lab (BIL) as well as an exceptional behavioral scientist.
June 5, 2015
As part of a broader World Bank Group effort to incorporate recent advances in the social and behavioral sciences into its projects and programs, and following upon the well-received World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior, the World Bank is recruiting an exceptional behavioral economist to work in its new Behavioral Innovations Lab (BIL) as well as an exceptional behavioral scientist.
The Mathematics of Love
February 15, 2015
Finding the right mate is no cakewalk — but is it even mathematically likely? In a charming talk, mathematician Hannah...
February 15, 2015
Finding the right mate is no cakewalk — but is it even mathematically likely? In a charming talk, mathematician Hannah...
