The purpose of Harvard Law School's John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business is to further student understanding of law and economics, promote faculty research in the area, and help make the bar and the public better aware of the economic approach. The center supports a variety of activities including fellowships for students at Harvard Law School, research assistantships, prizes for the best student papers in law and economics, a seminar series in which invited speakers present works in progress to students and interested faculty, curriculum development, conferences, empirical and theoretical research, and the Harvard Law School Discussion Papers in Law and Economics.
The center's director is Steven Shavell and the assistant director is Louis Kaplow. For further information, contact Karl Coleman, Administrative Director ().
Submissions from 2009
Buying Troubled Assets, Lucian A. Bebchuk
How to Make Tarp II Work, Lucian A. Bebchuk
The Elusive Quest for Global Governance Standards, Lucian A. Bebchuk and Assaf Hamdani
Regulating Bankers' Pay, Lucian A. Bebchuk and Holger Spamann
Bundled Discounts, and the Death of the Single Monopoly Profit Theory, Einer Elhauge
Why the Google Books Settlement is Procompetitive, Einer Elhauge
Securities Litigation and the Housing Market Downturn, Allen Ferrell and Atanu Saha
Agency Problems, Legal Strategies, and Enforcement, Reinier Kraakman, John Armour, and Henry Hansmann
The Essential Elements of Corporate Law: What is Corporate Law?, Reinier Kraakman, John Armour, and Henry Hansmann
The Effect of Universal Health Insurance on Malpractice Claims: The Japanese Experience, J, Mark Ramseyer
Public and Private Firm Compensation Compared: Evidence from Japanese Tax Returns, J. Mark Ramseyer, Minoru Nakazato, and Eric Rasmusen
Assessing the Chrysler Bankruptcy, Mark Roe
Is Delaware's Corporate Law Too Big to Fail?, Mark Roe
Washington and Delaware as Corporate Lawmakers, Mark Roe
Public and Pricate Enforcement of Securities Laws: Resource-Based Evidence, Mark Roe and Howell Jackson
Finance and Politics: A Review Essay Based on Kenneth Dam's Analysis of Legal Traditions in The Law-Growth Nexus, Mark Roe and Jordon Siegal
On the Design of the Appeals Process: The Optimal use of Discretionary Review versus Direct Appeal, Steven Shavell
The Uneasy Case for Product Liability, Steven Shavell
Why Breach of Contract May Not Be Immoral Given the Incompleteness of Contracts, Steven Shavell
Trigger Happy or Gun Shy? Dissolving Common-Value Partnerships with Texas Shootouts, Kathryn E. Spier, R.W. Brooks, and Claudia M. Landao
Bundling and Firm Reputation, Kathryn E. Spier and James D. Dana, Jr.
Divide and Conquer, Kathryn E. Spier, Eric A. Posner, and Adrian Vermeule
Judicial Deference to Inconsistent Agency Statutory Interpretations, Matthew C. Stephenson and Yehontan Givati
Loyalty's Core Demand: The Defining Role of Good Faith in Corporation Law, Leo E. Strine, Jr.; Lawrence A. Hamermesh; R. Franklin Balotti; and Jeffrey M. Gorris
The Law, Culture, and Economics of Fashion, Jeannie Suk and C. Scott Hemphill
System Effects and the Constitution, Adrian Vermeuele
Submissions from 2008
A Plan for Addressing the Financial Crisis, Lucian A. Bebchuk
Unfreezing Credit Markets, Lucian A. Bebchuk
Self-Fulfilling Credit Market Freezes, Lucian A. Bebchuk and Itay Goldstein
Law and Economics Issues in Subprime Litigation, Jennifer E. Bethel, Allen Ferrell, and Gang Hu
Strategic Judgment Proofing, Yeon-Koo Che and Kathryn Spier
Asymmetric Learning in Repeated Contracting: An Empirical Legal Study, Alma Cohen
Disgorgement as an Antitrust Remedy, Einer Elhauge
Do Patent Holdup and Royalty Stacking Lead to Systematically Excessive Royalties?, Einer Elhauge
Loyalty Discounts and Naked Exclusion, Einer Elhauge
Optimal Policy with Heterogeneous Preferences, Louis Kaplow
Optimal Taxation, Louis Kaplow
Taxing Leisure Complements, Louis Kaplow
The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics, Louis Kaplow
Predicting Court Outcomes Through Political Preferences: The Japanese Supreme Court and the Chaos of 1993, J. Mark Ramseyer
Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows v. Ringling: Bad Appointments and Empty-Core Cycling at the Circus, J. Mark Ramseyer
The Mortality Effects of Cost Containment Under Universal Health Insurance: The Japanese Experience, J. Mark Ramseyer
Convictions versus Conviction Rates: The Prosecutor's Choice, J. Mark Ramseyer, Eric Rasmusen, and Manu Raghav
Perpetuities, Taxes, and Asset Protection: An Empirical Assessment of the Jurisdictional Competition for Trust Funds, Robert Sitkoff and Max Scanzenbach
Political Accountability Under Alternative Institutional Regimes, Matthew Stephenson and Jide Nzelibe
Submissions from 2007
Property Rights in Medieval Japan: The Role of Buddhist Temples and Monasteries, Mikael Adolphson and J. Mark Ramseyer
A Report on the Transatlantic Financial Services Regulatory Dialogue, Kern Alexander, Eilís Ferran, Howell E. Jackson, and Niamh Moloney
Consent and Exchange, Oren Bar-Gill and Lucian Bebchuk
CEO Centrality, Lucian Bebchuk, Martijn Cremers, and Urs Peyer
Investor Protection and Interest Group Politics, Lucian Bebchuk and Zvika Neeman
Exploiting Plaintiffs Through Settlement: Divide and Conquer, Yeon-Koo Che and Kathryn E. Spier
Competition in the Mutual Fund Industry: Evidence and Implications for Policy, John C. Coates IV and R. Glenn Hubbard
CEO Tenure, Performance and Turnover in S&P 500 Companies, John C. Coates IV and Reinier Kraakman
Do Financial Incentives Affect Fertility?, Alma Cohen, Rajeev Dehejia, and Dmitri Romanov
Estimating Risk Preferences from Deductible Choice, Alma Cohen and Liran Einav
Harvard, Not Chicago: Which Antitrust School Drives Recent Supreme Court Decisions, Einer Elhauge
The Loss Causation Requirement for Rule 10B-5 Causes-of-Action: the Implication of Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo, Allen Ferrell and Atanu Saha
Rewarding Outside Directors, Assaf Hamdani and Reinier Kraakman
Counting the Ways: The Structure of Federal Spending, Howell E. Jackson
Can States Tax National Banks to Educate Consumers About Predatory Lending Practices?, Howell E. Jackson and Stacy A. Anderson
Markets as Regulators: A Survey, Howell E. Jackson and Stavros Gadinis
Sarbanes-Oxley's Effects on Small Firms: What is the Evidence?, Ehud Kamar, Pinar Karaca-Mandic, and Eric Talley
Primary Goods, Capabilities,...or Well-Being?, Louis Kaplow
Antitrust, Louis Kaplow and Carl Shapiro
Agency Costs, Charitable Trusts, and Corporate Control: Evidence from Hershey's Kiss-Off, Jonathan Klick and Robert H. Sitkoff
Naked Exclusion: An Experimental Study of Contracts with Externalities, Claudia M. Lando and Kathryn E. Spier
Peer Effects in Affirmative Action: Evidence from Law Student Performance, John R. Lott and J. Mark Ramseyer
Bebchuk's "Case for Increasing Shareholder Power": An Opposition, Theodore N. Mirvis, Paul K. Rowe, and William Savitt
Bonuses and Biases in Japanese Baseball, Minoru Nakazato and J. Mark Ramseyer
Sex Bias in the Japanese Courts?, J. Mark Ramseyer
Talent and Expertise under Universal Health Insurance: The Case of Cosmetic Surgery in Japan, J. Mark Ramseyer
An Asymmetric Payoff-Based Explanation of IPO "Underpricing", Atanu Saha and Allen Ferrell
Did Reform of Prudent Trust Investment Laws Change Trust Portfolio Allocation?, Max M. Schanzenbach and Robert H. Sitkoff
Eminent Domain versus Government Purchase of Land Given Imperfect Information about Owner's Valuations, Steven Shavell
Product Safety, Buybacks and the Post-Sale Duty to Warn, Kathryn E. Spier
Toward Common Sense and Common Ground? Reflections on the Shared Interests of Managers and Labor in a More Rational System of Corporate Governance, Leo E. Strine Jr.
Submissions from 2006
U.S. Securities Regulation in a World of Global Exchanges, Reena Aggarwal, Allen Ferrell, and Jonathan Katz
Regulating Post-Bid Embedded Defenses: Lessons from Oracle versus PeopleSoft, Jennifer Arlen
The Myth of the Shareholder Franchise, Lucian Bebchuk
Pay Distribution in the Top Executive Team, Lucian Bebchuk, Martijn Cremers, and Urs Peyer
Lucky CEO's, Lucian Bebchuk, Yaniv Grinstein, and Urs Peyer
Lucky Directors, Lucian Bebchuk, Yaniv Grinstein, and Urs Peyer
Federal Corporate Law: Lessons from History, Lucian Bebchuk and Assaf Hamdani
Policy Issues Raised by Structured Products, Jennifer Bethel and Allen Ferrell
The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses, Patricia Born, W. Kip Viscusi, and Tom Baker
Law and the Rise of the Firm, Henry Hansmann, Reinier Kraakman, and Richard Squire
Contracts as Reference Points, Oliver Hart and John Moore
Skin Tone Effects among African Americans: Perceptions and Reality, Joni Hersch
Foreign Trading Screens in the United States, Howell E. Jackson, Andreas M. Fleckner, and Mark Gurevich
A New Method of Random Sampling to Reduce the Cost of Regulatory Monitoring, Robert J. Jackson Jr. and David Rosenberg
The Law of Implicit Bias, Christine Jolls and Cass R. Sunstein
Capital Levies and Transition to a Consumption Tax, Louis Kaplow
Discounting Dollars, Discounting Lives: Intergenerational Distributive Justice and Efficiency, Louis Kaplow
Myopia and the Effects of Social Security and Capital Taxation on Labor Supply, Louis Kaplow
Optimal Control of Externalities in the Presence of Income Taxation, Louis Kaplow
Optimal Income Transfers, Louis Kaplow
Taxation, Louis Kaplow
Executive Compensation in Japan: Estimating Levels and Determinants from Tax Records, Minoru Nakazato, J. Mark Ramseyer, and Eric B. Rasmusen
The Industrial Organization of the Japanese Bar: Levels and Determinants of Attorney Incomes, Minoru Nakazato, J. Mark Ramseyer, and Eric B. Rasmusen
Mandatory versus Voluntary Disclosure of Product Risks, A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell