American Law and Economics Association
16th Annual Meeting
May 5-6, 2006
University of California, Berkeley

Friday, May 5
8:00-8:45:

Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:45-9:00:

Welcome9:00-10:30:

Session I:

Panel IA:

Bankruptcy

Panel Chair: Douglas Baird
Barry E. Adler, Vedran Capkun, and Lawrence A. Weiss, “Theory and Evidence on theBankruptcy Initiation Problem”
Ronald J. Mann, “Credit Cards, Consumer Debt, and Bankruptcy”
Bob Rasmussen, “Empirically Bankrupt”
Panel IB:

Behavioral Law and Economics I

Panel Chair: Kathryn Zeiler
Paul Pecorino & Mark V. Van Boening, "Bargaining with Asymmetric Dispute Costs"
Roland Kirstein & Annette Kirstein, "Less Rationality, More Efficiency: A Laboratory
Experiment on 'Lemons' Markets”
Michael Daniel Guttentag, Chris Porath & Sam Fraidin, "Sarbanes-Oxley in theLaboratory: Using Experimental Economics to Study Fraud Prevention"

Panel IC:

Contracts I

Panel Chair: Ben Hermalin
Kenneth M. Ayotte and Stav Gaon, “Asset Backed Securities: Costs and Benefits of‘Bankruptcy Remoteness’”
Philippe Aghion, “Academic Freedom, Private-Sector Focus, and the Process ofInnovation”
Patrick Bolton, “Optimal Incomplete Contracts Between Boundedly Rational Agents”
Panel ID:

Intellectual Property I

Panel Chair: Antony Dnes
Thomas F. Cotter, “The Procompetitive Interest in Intellectual Property Law”
Linda R. Cohen, “Competition, Innovation and Racing for Priority at the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office”
Michael J. Meurer and Jim Bessen, “A Model of Patent Litigation with EndogenousDisputes”
Panel IE:

The Market for Legal Services

Panel Chair: Scott Baker
David Berkowitz, Chris Bonneau and Karen Clay, “Judicial Independence, Elections, andMinority Interests”
Fernando Gomez, "Should We Trust the Gatekeepers? Auditors’ and Lawyers' Liability
for Client’s Misconduct"
William D. Henderson, “An Empirical Study of Single-Tier Versus Two-Tier
Partnerships in the Am Law 200”
10:30-10:45:

Coffee Break10:45-12:15:

Session II:

Panel IIA:

Criminal Law I

Panel Chair: Jennifer Arlen
Radha Iyengar, “Not Getting Their Due Process: An Evaluation of Federal Indigent
Defense Counsel”
Avraham D. Tabbach and Jacob Nussim, “Punishment, Deterrence and Avoidance”
Chris William Sanchirico, “Detection Avoidance”
Panel IIB:Intellectual Property II

Panel Chair: Doug Lichtman
Ronald J. Mann and Thomas W. Sager, “Patents, Venture Capital, and Software StartUps”
Kimberly Moore, “Populism and Patents”
Michael Abramowicz, “The Problem of Patent Underdevelopment
Panel IIC:

Law and the American Medical System

Panel Chair: Michelle WhiteCharles Silver, Kathryn Zeiler, Bernard S. Black, David A. Hyman and William Sage,“‘You Can’t Get Blood From a Stone’: Physicians’ Insuring Practices and Payments on
Medical Malpractice Claims”
Ronen Avraham and Feng Lu, “An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on
State Level Macroeconomic Variables”
Barak D. Richman, “Distributive Injustice(s) in American Health Care”
Panel IID:

The Political System and the Law

Panel Chair: Pablo Spiller
Lucian Arye Bebchuk and Zvika Neeman, “A Political Economy Model of Investor
Protection”
Robert D. Cooter and Michael Gilbert, “Chaos in Direct Democracy”
John M. de Figueiredo and Charles M. Cameron, “Endogenous Cost Lobbying: Theoryand Evidence”

Panel IIE:

Property

Panel Chair: Michael Heller
Lee Anne Fennell, “Properties of Concentration”
Abraham Bell & Gideon Parchomovsky, “Taking Compensation Private”
Claire Priest, “Creating an American Property Law: Alienability and Its Limits inAmerican History”
12:15-1:30

Lunch1:30-3:00:

Session III:

Panel IIIA:

Behavioral Law and Economics II

Panel Chair: Justin McCrary
Joshua C. Teitelbaum, "A Unilateral Accident Model Under Ambiguity"
Catherine M. Sharkey and Sam Issacharoff, “Backdoor Federalization: Grappling Withthe ‘Risk to the Rest of the Country’”Peter H. Huang, "Beyond Cost-Benefit Analysis in Financial Regulation: Process
Concerns and Emotional Impact Analysis"
Panel IIIB:

Contracts II

Panel Chair: Gillian Hadfield
Stephen Choi and Mitu Gulati, “Contract as Statute”
David Gilo and Ariel Porat, “The Hidden Roles of Boilerplate and Standard Form
Contracts: Strategic Imposition of Transaction Costs, Segmentation of Consumers andAnticompetitive Effects”
Henry E. Smith, “Modularity in Contracts: Boilerplate and Information Flow”
Panel IIIC:Corporations & Securities I

Panel Chair: Gerard Hertig
Shmuel Leshem, “A Signaling Theory of Termination Fees in Mergers”
Ehud Kamar, “Does Shareholder Voting on Acquisitions Matter?”
Albert H. Choi, “Optimal Successor Liability”

Panel IIID:Torts I

Panel Chair: Omri Ben Schahar
A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, “Disclosure and the Incentive of Firms toAcquire Information About Product Risks”
Jacob Nussim and Avraham D. Tabbach, “Damages and the Levels of Care and Activity”
Ehud Guttel, “Strategic Precautions”
Panel IIIE:

Procedure and Evidence I

Panel Chair: Orley Ashenfelter
Theodore Eisenberg & Geoffrey P. Miller, “Incentive Awards to Class Action Plaintiffs:
An Empirical Study”
Michael A. Perino, “Markets and Monitors: The Impact of Competition and Experienceon Attorneys’ Fees in Securities Class Actions”
Jonathan Klick & Eric Helland, “The Impact of Attorney Compensation on the Timing ofSettlements”
3:00-3:15

Coffee Break

3:15-4:45:

Session IV:

Panel IVA:Tax

Panel Chair: Jeff Strnad
Kneave Riggall, “Should Tax Informants Be Paid? The Law and Economics of aGovernment Monopsony”
Tomer Blumkin, Yoram Margalioth, and Efraim Sadka, “Evaluating Affirmative Action
as a Redistributive Tool”
Steven A. Bank, “Dividends and Tax Policy in the Long-Run”

Panel IVB:

Corporations and Securities II

Panel Chair: George Triantis
Paul G. Mahoney and Jianping Mei, “Mandatory vs. Contractual Disclosure in Securities
Markets: Evidence From the 1930s”
Cindy R. Alexander, “The Evolution of Investor Information: Evidence From Public
Securities Offerings”
Jesse M. Fried, “Current-Owner Bias in Corporate Governance”
Panel IVC:

Judicial Politics

Panel Chair: Nicholas Georgakopoulos
Anne M. Joseph, “The Architecture of Smart Intelligence: Balancing Unification
and Redundancy in Agency Design and Congressional Oversight”
Tonja Jacobi, “A New Measure of Judicial Ideology and Coalition”
Thomas J. Miles, “Do Judges Make Regulatory Policy? An Empirical Investigation ofChevron”

Panel IVD:

Torts II

Panel Chair: Catherine Sharkey
Doug Lichtman, “Irreparable Benefits”
Kathryn E. Spier, “Strategic Judgment Proofing”
Eberhard Feess, Gerd Muelheusser, and Ansgar Wohlschlegal, “On the Optimality ofNegligence and Causation Standards in Cases of Uncertain Causation”

5:30-6:45

Cocktails

7:00

DinnerSaturday, May 6
8:00-9:00:

Continental Breakfast

9:00-10:30:

Session V:

Panel VA:

Administrative Law

Panel Chair: Mariano-Florentino Cuellar
Ehud Kamar, Pinar Karaca-Mandic and Eric Talley “Going-Private Decisions and theSarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: A Cross-Country Analysis”
Pushkar Maitra, Ingrid Nielsen, Chris Nyland, Russell Smyth, Cherrie Zhu, “FirmCompliance with Social Insurance Obligations where there is a Weak Surveillance andEnforcement Mechanism: Empirical Evidence from Shanghai”
Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci and Francesco Parisi, “Rents, Dissipation, and Lost Treasureswith N Parties”
Panel VB:

Antitrust and Regulation

Panel Chair: Jonathan Baker
Oren Bar-Gill, “Bundling and Consumer Misperception”
Edward M. Iacobucci, “A Switching Costs Explanation of Tying and Warranties”
Joshua D. Wright, “Slotting Contracts and Consumer Welfare”
Panel VC:

Contracts III

Panel Chair Han-Bernd Schaefer:Omri Ben-Shahar and James J. White, “Boilerplate and Economic Power in Auto
Manufacturing Contracts”
W. Bentley MacLeod, “Reputations, Relationships and the Enforcement of Incomplete
Contracts”
Steven Shavell, “Specific Performance versus Damages for Breach of Contract”

Panel VD:

Criminal Law II

Panel Chair: Dan Klerman
David J. Bjerk, “The Effect of Segregation on Crime Rates”
John Donohue & Justin J. Wolfers, “Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death
Penalty Debate”
Marcello Basili and Antonio Nicita, “Deterrence and Compliance in a Demerit PointSystem”

10:30-10:45:

Coffee Break

10:45-12:15:

Session VI:

Panel VIA:

Inequality and the LawPanel Chair: Richard Brooks
Chris William Sanchirico and Matthew Adler, “Inequality and Uncertainty: Theory andLegal Applications”
Jason S. Johnston, “Centralization Versus Decentralization in the Regulation andManagement of Large-Scale Risks”
Stéphane Mechoulan, “The Impact of African-American Male Incarceration Rates on
Young African American Females’ Fertility, Schooling and Employment in the U.S.,
1978-present”
Panel VIB:Intellectual Property III

Panel Chair: Mark Lemley
Brett M. Frischmann and Mark A. Lemley, “Spillovers”
F. Scott Kieff, “Coordination, Property and Intellectual Property: An Unconventional
Approach to Anticompetitive Effects & Downstream Access”
Robert P. Merges, “A Transactional View of Property Rights”

Panel VIC:

Politics and Judicial Decision-making

Panel Chair: Matthew Spitzer
Richard T. Boylan, “The Effect of Judge-Characteristics on Sentencing”
Dhammika Dharmapala, Nuno M. Garoupa and Joanna Shepherd, “Sentencing
Guidelines and TIS Legislation, Judges and Parole Boards: Has Bargaining Power
Changed in Sentencing?”
Abraham L. Wickelgren, “The Economics of Constitutional Rights and Voting Rules”
Panel VID

Corporate and Securities IV

Panel Chair: Vic KhannaVladimir A. Atanasov, Bernard Black, Conrad Ciccotello and Stanley Gyoshev, “HowDoes Law Affect Finance: An Examination of Financial Tunneling in an Emerging
Market”
James C. Spindler, “Conflict or Credibility: Analyst Conflicts of Interest and the Market
for Underwriting Business”
Douglas J. Cumming and Sofia A. Johan, “Regulatory Harmonization and theDevelopment of Private Equity Markets”
Panel VIE:

Social Norms: An International Perspective

Panel Chair: Richard McAdams
Jordan I. Siegel, Amir N. Licht & Shalom H. Schwartz, "Egalitarianism and International
Investment"
Robert D. Cooter & Brian Broughman, "Charity, Publicity, and the Donation Registry"
Eugene Kontorovich, "Is Customary International Law Efficient?"
12:15-1:30:

Lunch1:30-3:00:
Panel VIIA:

Session VII:
Agency Conflicts in Financial Markets

Panel Chair: Michal Barzuza
Donna M. Hitscherich and Charles W. Calomiris, “Banker Fees and Acquisition Premia
for Targets in Cash Tender Offers: Challenges to the Popular Wisdom on BankerConflicts”
Stephen Choi and Marcel Kahan, “The Market Penalty for Mutual Fund Scandals”
Anup Agrawal and Mark A. Chen, “Analyst Conflicts and Research Quality”
Panel VIIB:

Contracts IVPanel Chair: Andrew Daughety
Jennifer Arlen and William Bunting, “Signaling Quality with Renegotiable Contractual
Liability”
Alan Schwartz and Robert E. Scott, “The Law and Economics of Preliminary
Agreements”
Jonathan Klick, Bruce Kobayashi and Larry E. Ribstein, “Incomplete Contracts andOpportunism in Franchising Arrangements”
Panel VIIC:Common Law

Panel Chair: Antonio Nicita
Daniel M. Klerman, “Jurisdictional Competition and the Evolution of the Common Law”
Jochen Bigus, “Tort Liability and Probability Weighting Function According to Prospect
Theory”
Alex Stein, “Ambiguity Aversion and the Criminal Process”Panel VIID: Torts III
Panel Chair: Ariel Porat
Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci and Francesco Parisi, “Loss-Sharing Under Negligence”

Henrik Lando, “Optimal Negligence Standards When One Party is Ignorant of theStandards”
Ezra Friedman, “The Robust Efficiency of Comparative Negligence”
3:00-3:15:

Coffee Break

3:15-4:45:

Session VIII:

Panel VIIIA: Commercial Law
Panel Chair: John Pottow
Max M. Schanzenbach & Robert H. Sitkoff, “Did Reform of Prudent Trust Investment
Laws Change Trust Portfolio Allocation?”
Julia Shvets, “Courts, Firms and Allocation of Credit”
Panel VIIIB:Corporate and Securities III

Panel Chair: Roberta Romano
Kate Litvak, “The Effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Non-US Companies Listed in theU.S.
George G. Triantis and Edward Iacobucci, “A Capital-Structure Theory of FirmBoundaries”
Anup Malani and Eric Posner, “For Profit Charities”

Panel VIIIC: Social Welfare
Panel Chair: Betsey Stevenson
Christine Jolls, “Workplace Leave Mandates and the Employment of Individuals with
Disabilities”
Betsey A. Stevenson, “Beyond the Classroom: Using Title IX to Measure the Return toHigh School Sports”
Jonathan Klick and Thomas Stratmann, “Abortion Access and Risky Sex Among Teens”
Panel VID:

Comparative Law

Panel Chair: Wolfgang Weigel
Anita I. Anand, Voluntary vs. Mandatory Corporate Governance Regulation: Theory andEvidence
Alessandro Riboni, “Courts’ Decisionmaking Without Commitment: A ComparativeAnalysis”
Joyce Sadka, “Litigation and Settlement: New Evidence from Labor Courts in Mexico”
5:00:

Wine and Cheese Reception