Econ 522 – Economics of Law – Fall 2015

 

 
 
Professor:
 
Dan Quint, dquint@ssc.wisc.edu
6444 Social Science, 263-2515
Office hours: Tuesdays 3-5, and by appointment
 
 
 
 
 
Teaching Assistant:
 
Moheb Zidan, zidan (at) wisc (dot) edu
6413 Social Science
Office hours: Thursdays, 2-3
 
 
 
 
 
Lectures:
 
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-3:45 p.m., 5206 Social Science
No lecture September 23 or November 25
 
 
 
 
 
Exams:
 
Two in-class midterms Monday October 19 and Wednesday November 18
Final exam Saturday December 19, 5:05-7:05 p.m., 6210 Social Science
 
 
Office hours before final:
 
 
Prof. Quint: Tues 3-5, Wed 2-4, Fri 2-4
Moheb: Thurs 4-5:30, Fri 4-5:30
 
 
 
Syllabus
 
Supplemental readings are available through Learn@UW
 
Here are some exam questions from past semesters to give you a sense of what the exams might be like, and a solution to one of those problems (the shoe factory)
 
Here is a problem we’ll do in class in lecture 3, in case you want to look at it ahead of time
 
 
Homework Assignments
 
Homework 1 – due midnight on Thursday, September 17
Homework 2 – due midnight on Thursday, October 15
Homework 3 – due midnight on Thursday, November 12
Homework 4 – due midnight on Thursday, December 10
 
 
Slides/Lecture Notes
 
Preliminaries
 
Lecture 1 – overview, the Common and Civil Law traditions, whales, and baseballs
Lecture 2 – efficiency, what forces lead to inefficiency, and why study efficiency
Lecture 3 – do we want the law to be efficient? static game theory, motivating property law
 
Property Law
 
Lecture 4 – the Coase Theorem
Lecture 5 – when is private property worth it; transaction costs; two approaches when there are transaction costs
Lecture 6 – Calabresi and Melamed; what does an efficient property law system look like?
Lecture 7 – sequential rationality and intellectual property
Lecture 8 – more intellectual property, losing property rights, limitations on property rights
Lecture 9 – remedies, eminent domain, regulation
 
Contract Law
 
Lecture 10 – contracts, the bargain theory, breach
Lecture 11 – reliance, Hadley v Baxendale, default rules, penalty defaults
Lecture 12 – unenforceable contracts, ways to get out of a contract
Lecture 13 – contracts based on faulty information; types of damages and other remedies
Lecture 14 – recapping incentives; repeated interactions; wrapping up contract law
 
Tort Law
 
Lecture 15 – motivating tort law, introducing a basic model of unilateral harm
Lecture 16 – precaution and activity levels under various liability rules
Lecture 17 – wrapping up precaution and activity levels; the Hand Rule; effects of errors
Lecture 18 – does it all matter?, relaxing our key modeling assumptions, and the “value of a (statistical) life”
Lecture 19 – wrapping up tort law, and thinking about the legal system as a whole
 
Criminal Law
 
Lecture 20 – rational criminals and optimal deterrence
Lecture 21 – ordeals, punishment, and other criminal stuff
 
Concluding Material
 
Lecture 22 – behavioral economics and what it means for law and econ
Lecture 23 – revisiting efficiency, unenforced laws, recapping key ideas
 
 
You can also check out the course materials from Spring 2014 – the course this semester will be very similar.