American Law and Economics Association
Eighteenth Annual Meeting
May 16-17, 2008

Columbia Law School
435 West 116th St.
New York, NY 10027-7297

American Law and Economics Association 2007-2008
Officers
President: Lucian Bebchuk, Harvard University
Vice President/President-Elect: Michelle White, University of California at San Diego
Secretary-Treasurer: Orley Ashenfelter, Princeton University

Board of Directors
Class of 2008
Richard H. McAdams, University of Chicago
Katharina Pistor, Columbia University
Suzanne Scotchmer, University of California, Berkeley
Eric Talley, University of California, Berkeley
Class of 2009
Jennifer Arlen, New York University
Omri Ben-Shahar, University of MichiganJennifer Reinganum, Vanderbilt University
Chris Sanchirico, University of Pennsylvania
Class of 2010
Douglas Baird, University of Chicago
Stephen Choi, New York University
Francesco Parisi, University of Minnesota
Robert Rasmussen, University of Southern California

Program Committee
Lucian Bebchuk
Omri Ben-Shahar
Jeffrey Gordon

Editors of the American Law and Economics Review
John J. Donohue, Yale University
Steven Shavell, Harvard University

Executive Secretary
Karen G. Crocco

Reviewers for the 2008 Annual Meeting
Orley Ashenfelter
Kenneth Ayotte
Douglas Baird
Oren Bar-Gill
Lisa Bernstein
Richard Brooks
Howard Chang
Stephen Choi
Robert CooterMartijn Cremers
Steven Croley
Andrew Daughety
Aaron Edlin
Raymond Fisman
Jacob Gersen
Gillian Hadfield
Assaf Hamdani
Henry Hansmann
Edward Iacobucci

Vikramaditya Khanna
Daniel Klerman
Josh Lerner
Bentley MacLeod
Anup Malani
Thomas Miles
A. Mitchell Polinsky
Eric PosnerRoberta Romano
David Schizer
Robert Scott
Catherine Sharkey
Steven Shavell
Henry Smith
Matthew Stephenson
Rene Stultz
Guhan Subramanian
Eric Talley
Kathryn Zeiler

Friday, May 16(All sessions to be held at Columbia Law School)(Author's name in bold indicates person presenting paper)

8:00 – 8:45:

Registration and Continental Breakfast
Sponsored by Yale University Press

9:00 – 10:30:

Session I:

Panel IA:

Torts I (Room 101)

Panel Chair:

Catherine Sharkey

Robert Cooter and Ariel Porat, “Liability for Lapses: First or Second Order
Negligence?”
Nuno Garoupa and Thomas S. Ulen, “The Economics of Activity Levels in
Tort Liability and Regulation”
David Gilo and Ehud Guttel, “Liability for Insufficient Risks”

Panel IB:

Corporate Law and Governance I (Room 103)

Panel Chair: Martijn Cremers
Jay Cai, Jacqueline Garner, and Ralph Walkling, “Democracy orDisruption: An Empirical Analysis of Majority Elections”
Sudhakar Balachandran, Fabrizio Ferri, David Maber, “Solving theExecutive Compensation Problem through Shareholder Votes?
Evidence from the U.K.”
Antonio Falato, “Superstars or Superlemons? Top Executive Payand Corporate Acquisitions”

Panel IC:
Panel Chair:

Litigation and Settlement (Room 105)
Andrew Daughety

Eric Helland and Gia Lee, “Secrecy, Settlements & Medical Malpractice Litigation”
Jun Zhou, “Determinants of Delay in Litigation: Evidence and Theory”
Warren F. Schwartz and Abraham L. Wickelgren, “Credible Discovery, Settlement,
and Negative Expected Value Suits”

Friday (cont.)
Panel ID:

Property (Room 107)Panel Chair: Henry Smith
Lee Anne Fennell, “Homeownership 2.0”
Dean Lueck and Gary D. Libecap, “The Demarcation of Land”
Max M. Schanzenbach and Robert H. Sitkoff, “Bequest Puzzles in Economics: A
Legal Perspective”

Panel IE:
Panel Chair:

Political Economy & Public Choice I (Room 304)
Nathanial Persily

Paul Pecorino, “By-Product Lobbying: Was Stigler Right?”
Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci, Sander Onderstal, and Francesco Parisi, “Seeking Rents inthe Shadow of Coase”
Alexander Volokh, “Privatization, Free Riding, and Industry-Expanding Lobbying”

Panel IF:Intellectual Property: Patents (Room 546)

Panel Chair: Josh LernerJing-Yuan Chiou, “The Patent Quality Control Process: Can We
Afford (Rationally) Ignorant Patent Offices”
Ronald J. Mann, “A New Look at Patent Quality”
Matthew Sag, Tonja Jacobi, and Maxim Sytch, “The Effect ofJudicial Ideology in Intellectual Property Cases”

Panel IG:
Panel Chair:

Labor & Employment Law (Room 701)
Orley AshenfelterDavid S. Kaplan and Joyce Sadka, “Enforceability of Labor Law: Evidence from aLabor Court in Mexico”
Daniel L. Chen and Jasmin Sethi, “Does Forbidding Sexual Harassment Exacerbate
Gender Inequality?”
Suzanne Scotchmer, “Risk Taking and Gender in Hierarchies”

Friday (cont.)
10:30 – 10:45:

Coffee Break

10:45 – 12:15:

Session II:

Panel IIA:

Contracts and Commercial Law I (Room 101)

Panel Chair:

Bentley MacLeod

Ernst Fehr, Oliver Hart and Christian Zehnder, “Contracts as Reference Points Experimental Evidence”
Ariel Porat, “Expanding Restitution: Liability for Unrequested Benefits”
Juliet P. Kostritsky, “Uncertainty, Reliance, Preliminary Negotiations and the HoldUp Problem”

Panel IIB:
Panel Chair:

Securities Regulation (Room 103)
Stephen Choi

Michal Barzuza and David C. Smith, “Signaling a Lemon: The Decision not to CrossList and High Private Benefits of Control”
Alicia Davis Evans, “Are Investors’ Gains and Losses From Securities Fraud Equal
Over Time? Some Preliminary Evidence”
Robert P. Bartlett III, “Going Private But Staying Public: Reexamining the Effect ofSarbanes-Oxley on Firms’ Going-Private Decisions”

Panel IIC:

Law and Global Investment (Room 105)

Panel Chair: Raymond Fisman
Katharina Pistor, “Global Network Finance: Understanding East-West Linkages
between Sovereign Wealth Funds and Private Banks”
Jordan I. Siegel, Amir N. Licht, and Shalom H. Schwartz, “Egalitarianism, Cultural
Distance, and FDI: A New Approach”
Simeon Djankov, Tim Ganser, Caralee McLiesh, Rita Ramalho, Andrei Shleifer, “TheEffect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship”

Friday (cont.)
Panel IID:

Courts and Judges (Room 107)

Panel Chair: Daniel Klerman
Dhammika Dharmapala, Nuno Garoupa, Richard H. McAdams, “Exclusionary Rules
Convict the Innocent”
Jonathan R. Nash and Rafael I. Pardo, “An Empirical Investigation into Appellate
Structure and the Perceived Quality of Appellate Review”
Scott R. Baker, “Should We Pay Federal Circuit Judges More?”

Panel IIE:Regulatory Decision-making (Room 304)

Panel Chair: Cary Coglianese
Matthew D. Adler, “Risk Equity: A New Proposal”
Jacob E. Gersen and Anne Joseph O’Connell, “The Timing of Regulation”
Matthew C. Stephenson, “Optimal Political Control of the Bureaucracy”

Panel IIF:Tax (Room 546)

Panel Chair: David Schizer
Alex Raskolnikov, “Beyond Deterrence: Targeting Tax Enforcement with a PenaltyDefault”
Michael S. Knoll, “Business Taxes and International Competitiveness”
Lily L. Batchelder and Surachai Khitatrakun, “Dead or Alive: An Investigation of the
Incidence of Estate Taxes versus Inheritance Taxes”

Panel IIG:
Panel Chair:

Civil Rights & Discrimination I (Room 701)
Peter Siegelman

Yoon-Ho Alex Lee, “Social Perception and Affirmative Action: A Game-TheoreticAnalysis”
Lior Jacob Strahilevitz, “Reputation Nation: Law in an Era of Ubiquitous PersonalInformation”
JJ Prescott, “The Effects of Judge, Prosecutor, and Defendant Race and GenderInteractions on Defendant Outcomes”

Friday (cont.)
12:15 – 1:30:

Lunch (Mezzanine)
Sponsored by Cornerstone Research

1:30 – 3:00:

Session III:

Panel IIIA:

Contracts and Commercial Law II (Room 101)

Panel Chair: Robert Scott
Richard R. W. Brooks and Warren F. Schwartz, “Uncertain Breach of Contract andEfficient Preliminary Remedies”
Ronen Avraham and Zhiyong Liu, “Should Courts Ignore Ex-post Information when
Determining Contract Damages? A Re-evaluation of Contract Remedies”
Henry N. Butler and Jason S. Johnston, “Consumer Harm Acts? An Economic
Analysis of Private Actions under State Consumer Protection Acts”

Panel IIIB:

Corporate Law and Governance II (Room 103)

Panel Chair: Roberta RomanoJens C. Dammann and Matthias Schundeln, “The Incorporation Choices of Privately
Held Corporations”
Murali Jagannathan and A.C. Pritchard, “Does Delaware Entrench Managers?”
Cindy R. Alexander, Mark A. Chen, Duane J. Seppi, and Chester S. Spatt, “The Roleof Advisory Services in Proxy Voting”

Panel IIIC:

Bankruptcy I (Room 105)

Panel Chair: Douglas Baird
Ronald Sverdlove, S. Abraham, A. Ravid, and Arturo Bris, “The Effect of APR
Violations on the Seniority and Timing of Debt Issuance”
Sarah W. Carroll and Wenli Li, “The Homeownership Experience of Households inBankruptcy”
Adam J. Levitin and Joshua Goodman, “Mortgage Market Sensitivity to Bankruptcy
Modification”

Friday (cont.)
Panel IIID:

Property & Environmental (Room 107)

Panel Chair: Thomas Merrill
Abraham Bell and Gideon Parchomovsky, “Compensating Against Corruption”
Eric Kades, “A Positive Theory of Eminent Domain”
Jonathan R. Nash, “Allocation and Uncertainty: Strategic Responses to Environmental
Grandfathering”

Panel IIIE:

Criminal Law: Empirical (Room 304)

Panel Chair: Thomas Miles
Brian Rowe, “Gender Bias in the Enforcement of Traffic Laws: Evidence Based on a
New Empirical Test”
Fritz Foley, “Welfare Payments and Crime”
Thomas Stratmann and Michael D. Makowsky, “Political Economy at Any Speed:
Determinants of Traffic Citations”

Panel IIIF:

Intellectual Property (Room 546)

Panel Chair: Christopher S. Yoo
Jonathan M. Barnett, Gilles Grolleau, Sana El Harbi, “The Fashion Lottery:
Cooperative Innovation in Stochastic Markets”
Dotan Oliar and Christopher Sprigman, “The Emergence of Intellectual Property
Norms in Stand-Up Comedy”
Georg von Graevenitz , “Which Reputations Does a Brand Owner Need? Evidence
from Trade Mark Opposition”Panel IIIG:

Political Economy & Public Choice II (Room 701)

Panel Chair: Roderick Hills
Ezra Friedman, “Do Small Governments Make Bad Neighbors”
Filipe R. Campante and Quoc-Anh Do, “Inequality, Redistribution, and Population”
Yehonatan Givati, “Strategic Statutory Interpretation by Administrative Agencies”

Friday (cont.)
3:00 – 3:15:

Coffee Break

3:15 – 4:45:

Session IV:

Panel IVA:

Corporate Governance around the World I (Room 101)

Panel Chair: Rene Stultz
Holger Spamann, “Measuring Legal Shareholder Protection - Revisiting ‘Law andFinance’”John Armour, Bernard Black, Brian Cheffins, and Richard Nolan, “Private
Enforcement of Corporate Law: An Empirical Comparison of the US and UK”
Kate Litvak, “The Correlation between Cross-Listing Premia, US Stock Prices, andVolume of US Trading: A Challenge to Law-Based Theories of Cross-Listing”

Panel IVB:

Torts II (Room 103)

Panel Chair: A. Mitchell Polinsky
Andrew F. Daughety and Jennifer F. Reinganum, “Population-Based Liability
Determination, Mass Torts, and the Incentives for Suit, Settlement, and Trial”
Eric Helland and Alexander Tabarrok, “Product Liability and Moral Hazard:
Evidence from General Aviation”
Joshua C. Teitelbaum, “Allocation Rules and the Stability of Mass Tort ClassActions”

Panel IVC:

Lawyers, Judges, and Juries (Room 105)

Panel Chair: Jennifer Reinganum
Rosa Ferrer, “The Effect of Lawyers' Career Concerns in Litigation”
Radha Iyengar, “Who's the Fairest in the Land? Comparing Judge and Jury Decisions
in Capital Cases”
Stephen J. Choi, Jill E. Fisch, and A.C. Pritchard, “Attorney as Arbitrators”

Friday (cont.)
Panel IVD:

Antitrust and Regulation I (Room 107)

Panel Chair: Edward Iacobucci
Ittai Paldor, “RPM as an Exclusionary Practice”Antonio Nicita, “Consumers Win-back as Exclusionary Conduct: Some Insights for
Antitrust Law”
Claudia M. Landeo and Kathryn Spier, “Naked Exclusion: An Experimental Study ofContracts with Externalities”

Panel IVE:

Family & Gender (Room 304)

Panel Chair: Amy Wax
Betsey A. Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, “Paradox of Declining Female Happiness”
Rick Geddes, Dean Lueck, and Sharon Tennyson, “The Effects of Expanding
Women’s Rights”
Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Marc S. Galanter, Kaushik Mukhopadhaya, and Kathleen E.
Hull, “Gender and the Legal Profession: The Michigan Alumni Data Set 1967-2000”

Panel IVF:

Public Law (Room 546)

Panel Chair: Steven Croley
Eric A. Posner, “Does Political Bias in the Judiciary Matter? Implications of Judicial
Bias Studies for Legal and Constitutional Reform”
Donald Wittman, “What is So Special about Special Interest Politics?”
Keith Brown and Adam Candeub, “What Do Bureaucrats Want? Estimating Regulator
Preferences at the FCC”

Panel IVG:

International Law (Room 701)

Panel Chair: Oona Hathaway
Tomer Broude and Doron Teichman, “Outsourcing and Insourcing Crime: The
Political Economy of Globalized Criminal Activity”
Andrew T. Guzman, “International Tribunals: A Rational Choice Analysis”
Vincy Fon, “Linking International Issues”

Friday (cont.)
5:30 – 6:45:

Cocktails
Sponsored by The Federalist Society

7:00

ALEA Annual Dinner
Sponsored by Columbia Law School
Speaker: Michelle White, University of California, San Diego
Lerner Hall, 115th & Broadway

Saturday, May 17
8:00 – 9:00:

Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 10:30:

Session V:

Panel VA:

Theory of the Firm (Room 101)

Panel Chair: Henry Hansmann
Brian Broughman, “Independent Directors and Board Control in Venture Finance”
Oliver Hart, “Hold-Up, Asset Ownership, and Reference Points”
Giorgio Zanarone, “The Role of Decision Rights in Incomplete Contracts: The Caseof Automobile Franchising”

Panel VB:

Torts III (Room 103)

Panel Chair: David Rosenberg
Jennifer Arlen, “Contracting Over Malpractice Liability”
Fernando Gomez and Jose Penalva, “Insurance and Tort: Coordination Systems andImperfect Liability Rules”
Cass R. Sunstein, “Illusory Losses”

Panel VC:

Behavioral Law & Economics (Room 105)

Panel Chair: Kathryn Zeiler
Sumit Agarwal, John C. Driscoll, Xavier Gabaix, and David Laibson, “The Age ofReason: Financial Decisions over the Lifecycle”
Seth A. Seabury, “Inferring Beliefs about Potential Trial Outcomes Using Jury
Verdicts in Civil Litigation”
John Hagedoorn and Geerte Hesen, “Complexity and the Cognitive Load Of R&D
Alliance Contracts: An Experimental Study”

Saturday (cont.)
Panel VD:

Antitrust and Regulation II (Room 107)

Panel Chair: Aaron Edlin
C. Scott Hemphill, “An Empirical Analysis of Drug Patent Settlements between
Rivals”
Eberhard Feess and Ansgar Wohlschlegel, “All-Unit Discounts and Competing
Entrants”
Gillian K. Hadfield, “Legal Barriers to Innovation: The Growing Economic Cost ofProfessional Control over Corporate Legal Markets”

Panel VE:

Financial Institutions (Room 304)

Panel Chair: Assaf HamdaniDavid Reiffen and Michael A. Robe, “Ownership Structure & Enforcement Incentives
at Self-Regulatory Financial Exchanges”
Donato Masciandaro, “Politicians and Financial Supervision outside the Central Bank:
Why Do They do it?”
Yaxuan Qi, Lukas Roth, and John K. Wald, “Political Rights and the Cost of Debt”

Panel VF:

Health Law (Room 546)

Panel Chair: Anup Malani
Adeline Delavande, Dana Goldman, and Neeraj Sood, “Criminal Prosecution andHIV-related Risky Behavior”
J. Mark Ramseyer, “Talent and Expertise under Universal Health Insurance: The
Case of Cosmetic Surgery in Japan”
Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon, “Tolerance and HIV”

10:30 – 10:45:

Coffee BreakSaturday (cont.)
10:45 – 12:15:

Session VI:

Panel VIA:

Corporate Governance around the World II (Room 101)

Panel Chair: Vikramaditya KhannaJose Miguel Mendoza, “Securities Regulation in Low-tier Listing Venues: The Rise of
the Alternative Investment Market”
Érica Gorga, “Changing the Paradigm of Stock Ownership: From ConcentratedTowards Dispersed Ownership? Evidence from Brazil and Consequences For Emerging
Countries”
Stavros Gadinis, “Is Investor Protection the SEC's Top Priority? Evidence from
Enforcement against Broker-Dealers”

Panel VIB:

Contracts and Commercial Law III (Room 103)

Panel Chair: Jason Johnston
Emily Kadens, “Merchants, Kings, and the Codification of Commercial Law”
Jody S. Kraus and Robert E. Scott, “Contract Design and the Structure of ContractualIntent”
Oren Bar-Gill, “Law, Economics and Psychology of Subprime Mortgage Contracts”

Panel VIC:

Civil Rights and Discrimination II (Room 105)

Panel Chair: Richard Brooks
David S. Abrams, Marianne Bertrand, and Sendhil Mullainathan, “Do Judges Vary in
Their Treatment of Race?”
Alok Kumar and Justin Wolfers, “Do Analysts Discriminate? Evidence of In-groupBias?”
Enrichetta Ravina, “Beauty, Personal Characteristics and Trust in Credit Markets”

Panel VID:

Negotiations and Dealmaking (Room 107)

Panel Chair: Guhan SubramanianAlbert H. Choi, “Integrating an Agreement to Induce Information Disclosure”
Claire A. Hill, “Bargaining in the Shadow of the Lawsuit: A Social Norms Theory ofIncomplete Contracting”
Liza S. Vertinsky, “Reconsidering Patent Licensing in the Aftermath of Medimmune”

Saturday (cont.)
Panel VIE:

International Economic Law (Room 304)

Panel Chair: Michael Trebilcock
Mostafa Beshkar, “Trade Skirmishes and Safeguards: A Theory of the WTO Dispute
Settlement Process”
Robert W. Staiger and Alan O. Sykes, “Currency Manipulation in World Trade”
Joel P. Trachtman, “The International Law of Economic Migration”

Panel VIF:

Family & Gender: Fiscal Policy (Room 546)

Panel Chair: Gillian Hadfield
Howard F. Chang, “Immigration Restriction as Redistributive Taxation: Working
Women and the Costs of Protectionism in the Labor Market”
Chris William Sanchirico, “Progressivity and Potential Income: Measuring the Effectof Changing Work Patterns on Income Tax Progressivity”
Margaret F. Brinig and Steven L. Nock, “Legal Status and Effects on Children”

12:15 – 1:30:

Lunch (Mezzanine)
Sponsored by Analysis Group

1:30 – 3:00

Session VII:

Panel VIIA:

Corporate Law and Governance III (Room 101)

Panel Chair: Eric Talley
Robert Daines, “Rating the Ratings: How Good are Commercial Corporate
Governance Ratings”
Dalida Kadyrzhanova and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf , “Concentrating on Governance”
James C. Spindler, “Vicarious Liability for Bad Corporate Governance: Are weWrong about 10b-5?”

Saturday (cont.)
Panel VIIB:

Rules and Legal Systems (Room 103)

Panel Chair: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci
Anthony Niblett, Richard Posner, and Andrei Shleifer, “The Evolution of a LegalRule”
Max M. Schanzenbach and Emerson H. Tiller, “Reviewing the Sentencing Guidelines:
Judicial Politics, Empirical Evidence, and Reform”
Kristoffel Grechenig and Martin Gelter, “The Transatlantic Divergence in Legal
Thought: American Law and Economics vs. German Doctrinalism”

Panel VIIC:

Bankruptcy II (Room 105)

Panel Chair: Kenneth M. Ayotte
Vedran Capkun and Lawrence A. Weiss, “Bankruptcy Resolution and the Restorationof Priority of Claims"
Tom Chang and Antoinette Schoar, "Judge Specific Differences in Chapter 11 andFirm Outcomes"
Stephen J. Lubben, "Corporate Reorganization and Professional Fees"

Panel VIID:

Political Economy and Public Choice III (Room 107)

Panel Chair: Jacob Gersen
Stephen J. Choi, G. Mitu Gulati, and Eric A. Posner, “Professionals or Politicians: The
Uncertain Empirical Case for an Elected Rather than Appointed Judiciary”
Brian D. Galle, “Federal Grants, State Decisions”
Eric Zitzewitz, “An Eliot Effect? Prosecutorial Discretion in Mutual Fund Settlement
Negotiations, 2003-7”

Panel VIIE:

Law and Development (Room 304)

Panel Chair: Robert Cooter
Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian, Frederick Tung, and Xue (Sue) Wang, “Law,Agency Costs and Project Finance: An Empirical Analysis”
Adam Feibelman, “Regulation of Consumer Finance as Development Policy”
Peter Grajzl and Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl, “The Choice of the Lawmaking
Process: Legal Transplants vs. Indigenous Law”

Saturday (cont.)
Panel VIIF:

Criminal Law: Theory (Room 546)

Panel Chair: Stephen Shavell
Avraham D. Tabbach, “Wealth Redistribution and the Social Costs of Crime and Law
Enforcement”
Shmuel Leshem, “The Effects of the Right to Silence on the Innocent’s Decision toRemain Silent”
Svetlana Andrianova and Nicolas Melissas “Corruption, Extortion, and the Boundariesof the Law"

3:00

Wine and Cheese Reception (Mezzanine)