Research Handbook on Behavioral Law and Economics

by Joshua C. Teitelbaum (Author, Editor), Kathryn Zeiler (Author, Editor)

'In order to use law to improve social welfare, scholars and policy makers need to be able to predict how people will respond to the legal change. To do so, they must understand when and how decisions are affects by systematic biases and heuristics, including how people respond to changes in either the legal or institutional environment. In this path-breaking volume, Professors Teitelbaum and Zeiler have assembled leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to enrich our understanding of human decision-making and analyze the implications of behavioral analysis for a wide range of legal issues, including antitrust, consumer finance, criminal law, torts, and property. This book will be enormously valuable for students, scholars and policy makers.'
- Jennifer Arlen, New York University, School of Law, US

The field of behavioral economics has contributed greatly to our understanding of human decision making by refining neoclassical assumptions and developing models that account for psychological, cognitive, and emotional forces. The field’s insights have important implications for law. This Research Handbook offers a variety of perspectives from renowned experts on a wide-ranging set of topics including punishment, finance, tort law, happiness, and the application of experimental literatures to law. It also includes analyses of conceptual foundations, cautions, limitations and proposals for ways forward.

The leading scholars of law, economics, and psychology featured in this Research Handbook use their insights to synthesize and contribute to the extant research at the intersection of behavioral economics and key areas of law, and to demonstrate methods for effective original research. With synthetic literature reviews and original research, conceptual overviews and critical perspectives, as well as topic-specific chapters, it provides a strong overview of this burgeoning field.

Law and economics scholars, behavioral law scholars, and behavioral economists and psychologists dealing with law, judgement and decision-making will appreciate this Research Handbook’s dedication to applicable research, and judges, lawmakers, policy advocates and regulators will note its important practical implications for law and public policy.

Contributors include: S. Agarwal, A. al-Nowaihi, B.W. Ambrose, J. Baron, M. Bos, G. Charness, T. Chorvat, G. DeAngelo, S. Dhami, B. Ho, P.H. Huang, D. Huffman, O.D. Jones, C.M. Landeo, B. Luppi, K. McCabe, G. Mitchell, F. Parisi, S. Payne Carter, P.M. Skiba, A. Stein, T. Wilkinson-Ryan, E. Xiao, K. Zeiler

Review
'What does behavioral economics have on offer for the law? This Research Handbook forcefully cautions against the simplistic response: realism. For well-selected subfields of law, like antitrust, punishment or torts, it demonstrates the power of taking motivation and cognition seriously. But this requires mastering the emerging behavioral theory, and carefully gauging the facetted empirical evidence. The reader is guided towards the relevant literatures in economics and psychology, and learns how to read them. This Research Handbook will help lawyers make a most timely behavioral turn.'
–Christoph Engel, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Germany

'Behavioral law and economics is ascending. Teitelbaum and Zeiler, leaders in this emerging field, have put together an indispensable volume, including helpful literature reviews, new findings and critically important methodological discussions. These contributions are mandatory reading for researchers in the field and, more importantly, for policymakers that move, sometimes too quickly, to translate the research into law.'
–Oren Bar-Gill, Harvard Law School, US

'This breathtaking volume on behavioral law and economics testifies to the field's depth, breadth, and impact. Professors Teitlebaum and Zeiler have gathered a veritable ''who's who'' of leading thinkers and researchers who variously define, defend, extend, and critique the field. For the uninitiated, this volume provides a valuable introduction to behavioral law and economics; for scholars in the field, this is truly indispensable reading.'
–Chris Guthrie, Vanderbilt Law School, US

About the Author
Edited by Joshua C. Teitelbaum, Georgetown University Law Center and Kathryn Zeiler, Boston University, School of Law, US