Behavioral Law and Economics

47 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2007 Last revised: 11 Sep 2022

See all articles by Christine Jolls

Christine Jolls

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Yale Law School

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 2007

Abstract

Behavioral economics has been a growing force in many fields of applied economics, including public economics, labor economics, health economics, and law and economics. This paper describes and assesses the current state of behavioral law and economics. Law and economics had a critical (though underrecognized) early point of contact with behavioral economics through the foundational debate in both fields over the Coase theorem and the endowment effect. In law and economics today, both the endowment effect and other features of behavioral economics feature prominently and have been applied in many important legal domains. The paper concludes with reference to a new emphasis in behavioral law and economics on "debiasing through law" - using existing or proposed legal structures in an attempt to reduce people's departures from the traditional economic assumption of unbounded rationality.

Suggested Citation

Jolls, Christine and Jolls, Christine, Behavioral Law and Economics (January 2007). NBER Working Paper No. w12879, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=960453

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