Econ 522 – Economics of Law – Fall 2013

 

 
 
Lectures:
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-3:45 p.m., 5106 Social Science
 
 
Professor:
Dan Quint, dquint@ssc.wisc.edu
6444 Social Science, 263-2515
Office hours Tuesday afternoons 2-4, other times by appointment
 
 
Teaching Assistant:
Nathan Yoder, ndyoder@wisc.edu
6413 Social Science
Office hours Mondays 1-2 and Wednesdays 4-5
 
 
Exam Dates:
Two in-class midterms October 23 and November 20
Final exam Saturday December 21, 7:45-9:45 a.m., location TBA
 
 
Syllabus
 
Sample exam questions from past semesters, and a solution to one of them
 
 
Homework 1 – due online (via Learn@UW) Thursday, September 19 at 11:59 p.m.
Homework 2 – due online (via Learn@UW) Thursday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m.
 
 
Lecture slides/notes
 
Introductory material
 
Lecture #1 – introduction, the Common and Civil Law traditions, whales and baseballs
Lecture #2 – efficiency – what is it, do we want it and why?
               “fake homework” for lecture #3 – why are broad-based taxes preferable to narrow ones?
Lecture #3 – efficiency as a normative goal; intro to static game theory
 
Property Law
 
Lecture #4 – intro to static game theory; motivation for property law; the Coase Theorem
Lecture #5 – foxes; threat points and bargaining; when will property rights expand; transaction costs
Lecture #6 – how should we deal with transaction costs? what does the efficient property law system look like?
Lecture #7 – more on designing the efficient property law system; sequential rationality
Lecture #8 – sequential rationality and intellectual property
Lecture #9 – limitations and exceptions to property rights
 
 
Section notes
 
Section #1 (September 13)
Section #2 (September 20)
Section #3 (September 27)
 
 
 
Also feel free to check out last semester’s course materials, as the course this fall will be very similar.