2. The Influence of Economics on Law: A Quantitative Study
Author(s):William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
Source:The Journal of Law & Economics,Vol. 36, No. 1, Part 2, John M. Olin Centennia , Conference in Law and Economics
at the University of Chicago (Apr., 1993), pp. 385-424
Published by:The University of Chicago Press forThe Booth School of Business, University of Chicago andThe University
of Chicago Law School
To say that X influenced Y is to say that, had X never existed, Y
would be different in some particular way, But X did come into
existence, so how is one to figure out how things would have
stood if it hadn’t? Is law and economics as influential today as it
was ten or twenty years ago?
Introduction:
3. Group 1:
Economist (faculty) without degree in ‘Law’
Group 2:
Professor of Law with PhD in Economics
Group 3 :
4 Scholars honoured as ‘Founder of Law and Economics’
Data source: Social Science Citation Index (1976-1990)
CITATION ANALYSIS OF SCHOLARS
• Ronald Coase
• Henry G Manne
• Richard Posner
• Guido Calabresi
Total 27 persons in
sample data
4. CITATIONS TO ECONOMISTS
Inference
Total citations increased fourfold, reflects an increase in number of publications as a
function of experience.
Most of the economist in sample has their recent (1986-90) publications are of less
interest to economics
5. Regression analysis
(Relation among citations, experience, and the growth of economics in law)
Let ,
Cij denote the number of citations to the ith individual in year j
Cij = DjKij ……………………………………….. (1)
Kij = exp (ki + b1Yij + b2(Yij)2 + wij)……………….. (2)
Di = exp (d + b3Tj + vj )……………………………..(3)
Where,
Dj and Kij denote respectively the market demand per unit of capital(articles) and i's capital in period j.
Tj denotes time ( for ,1976= 1, 1977=2… and so on)
wij and vj are random error terms
Substituting (2) and (3) into (1), and taking logs,
lnCij = b + b1Yij + b2(Yij)2 + b3Tj + uij …………………………………….(4)
6. REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF CITATIONS TO ECONOMISTS
|t| > 1.705618 , At α= 0.05 significance level
8. CITATIONS TO JOINT DEGREE
Observation
• Joint degree has less teaching and research experience.
• Joint degrees cited much more less than the pure economist.
9. Introduction of D (dummy variable)
Most pf publication are within last five years; for the joint degrees. Hence a
combination of ‘Joint degrees’ and ‘Economist’ has been taken
= 1 ; joint degrees
= 0 ; economistD
10. CITATION TO FOUNDERS
Coase:
• Follow an atypical pattern.
• Regression sign on a human capital has wrong sign; negative forY, and positive for Y2.
11. Calabresi, Manne, Posner :
• more citations than the thirteen economists plus the ten joint-
degree scholars.
• 50 % more citation than other 23 persons in the sample.
• relation between citation and experience is atypical for the
founders.
13. Conclusion:
Although citation analysis as a method of evaluating influence can be
criticized, but this analysis demonstrates considerable internal
consistency, considerable consistency with an independent literature
(that of human capital). Although this study is limited with less sample
(27) and it can be expand to get more precise results and conclusion.
But this article supports a tentative conclusion that the influence of
economics on law was growing , at least through 1980s.
