Economic Foundations of Law and Organization
by Donald Wittman (Author)

Description

This book serves as a compact introduction to the economic analysis of law and organization. At the same time it covers a broad spectrum of issues. It is aimed at undergraduate economics students who are interested in law and organization, law students who want to know the economic basis for the law, and students in business and public policy schools who want to understand the economic approach to law and organization. The book covers such diverse topics as bankruptcy rules, corporate law, sports rules, the organization of Congress, federalism, intellectual property, crime, accident law, and insurance. Unlike other texts on the economic analysis of law, this text is not organized by legal categories but by economic theory. The purpose of the book is to develop economic intuition and theory to a sufficient degree so that one can apply the ideas to a variety of areas in law and organization.
 
Review

"A huge amount of law, as it relates both to individual rights and social organization, can be simply and effectively explained by the consistent application of a few basic economic concepts. In this volume, Don Wittman deftly uses two key tools - an accurate definition of social welfare and the critical role of transaction costs - —to show the common threads that unite such disparate legal fields as bankruptcy, contracts, land use planning, and torts. His useful, rigorous and readable introduction to the principles of economics lays the groundwork for further study at the intersection of law and social organizations." - Richard A. Epstein, University of Chicago
"Wittman has written an economists' law and economics text. It is organized around economic, not legal, principles. It provides an economic analysis of legal and organizational issues. More importantly, it showcases the power and flexibility of economic analysis in unusual and interesting settings." - Paul H. Rubin, Emory University
"Readers will welcome the sophistication of this book on the new and growing subject of economics and law for its two distinctive qualities. First, it is organized around themes of economic theory. This allows the reader to gain a kind of insight that would not be possible were the book organized in the more usual way, according to legal subject matter. Second, the book covers more than purely legal subject matter -– it discusses important aspects of organizations and their governance. I enthusiastically recommend the book to students and scholars alike." - Steven Shavell, Harvard Law School
"Wittman takes a fresh approach to law and economics, rethinking the traditional subject areas and covering many new ones." - Michelle J. White, University of California, San Diego
"Wittman has succeeded in writing a textbook that distinguishes itself from the competition in its topical orientation and its organizational structure.... I would recommend this book to instructors who teach law-and-economics to general economics majors (or as a prelude to a more advanced law-and-economics course), or, as Wittman suggests in his introduction, a supplement to intermediate microeconomics courses focusing on the Coase Theorem and transaction costs." - Eastern Economic Journal