American Law and Economics Association Seventeenth Annual…

American Law and Economics Association

      Seventeenth Annual Meeting

             May 5-6, 2007


          Harvard Law School
      American Law and Economics Association 2006-2007

                                Officers

               President: Oliver Hart, Harvard University
   Vice President/President-Elect: Lucian Bebchuk, Harvard University
Secretary-Treasurer: Michelle White, University of California at San Diego

                           Board of Directors

                            Class of 2007
              Howard F. Chang, University of Pennsylvania
                   Roberta Romano, Yale University
               Kathryn E. Spier, Northwestern University
                George G. Triantis, Harvard University

                            Class of 2008
              Richard H. McAdams, University of Illinois
                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 Michigan
               Jennifer Reinganum, Vanderbilt University
              Chris Sanchirico, University of Pennsylvania

 Nominating Committee                      Program Committee

   Omri Ben-Shahar                            Oliver Hart
   Jennifer Reinganum                      Richard McAdams
   Roberta Romano                          Suzanne Scotchmer


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

                          Executive Secretary
                           Karen G. Crocco

            Area Organizers for the 2007 Annual Meeting
                                           Jeffrey Rachlinski
              Barry Adler                  Jennifer Reinganum
              Omri Ben-Shahar              Daniel Rubinfeld
              Kevin Davis                  Steven Shavell
              John de Figueiredo           Christopher Snyder
              John Donohue                 Matthew Spitzer
              Henry Farber                 Alan Sykes
              Jeffrey Gordon               David Weisbach
              Josh Lerner
              Katharina Pistor
                                    Saturday, May 5

                       (All sessions to be held at the Law School)

               (Author's name in bold indicates person presenting paper)


8:00 - 8:45:    Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:45 - 9:00:    Welcome by Dean Elena Kagan.
                (Ropes Gray Room, Pound Hall, 2nd floor)


9:00-10:30:     Session I:


Panel IA:       Public and Administrative Law (I) (Pound 101)

   Panel Chair: Matthew Spitzer

        Christopher Avery, Christine Jolls, Richard Posner, Alvin Roth, "The New Market for
        Federal Judicial Law Clerks"

        Daniel E. Ho, "Congressional Agency Control: The Impact of Statutory Partisan
        Requirements on Regulation"

        Alexander Volokh, "Privatization and the Effectiveness of Monitoring Agencies"


Panel IB:       Empirical Bankruptcy (Pound 102)

   Panel Chair: Mark Roe

        Edward R. Morrison, "Bargaining Around Bankruptcy: Small Business Distress and
        State Law"

        Lawrence A. Weiss and Vedran Capkun, "Bankruptcy Resolution: Priority of Claims
        with the Secured Creditor in Control"

        Douglas G. Baird, Arturo Bris, and Ning Zhu, "The Dynamics of Large and Small
        Chapter 11 Cases: An Empirical Study"


Panel IC:       Behavioral Law and Economics/Social Norms (I) (Pound 107)

   Panel Chair: Richard McAdams

        Robert D. Cooter, Yuval Feldman, and Michal Feldman, "The Misperception of
        Norms: The Psychology of Bias and the Economics of Equilibrium"

        Tonja Jacobi, "Acknowledging Guilt: Forcing Self-Identification in Post-Conviction
        DNA Testing"

        Leigh Linden and Jonah Rockoff, "There Goes the Neighborhood? Estimates of the
        Impact of Crime Risk on Property Values from Megan's Laws"
                                        Saturday, May 5
Panel ID:       Contracts and Commercial Law (I) (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: Avery Katz

        Kenneth M. Ayotte and Patrick Bolton, "Optimal Property Rights in Financial
        Contracting"

        Ricard Gil and Francine Lafontaine, "The Role of Revenue Sharing in Movie
        Exhibition Contracts"

        Tai-Yeong Chung and Alan Chan, "Contract Damages and Investment Dynamics"


Panel IE:       Corporate, Securities, and Organizational Law: Comparative and
                International (I) (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: Katharina Pistor

        Anita I. Anand and Laura N. Beny, "Why Do Firms Adopt Insider Trading Policies?
        Evidence from Canadian Firms"

        Douglas J. Cumming and Sofia A. Johan, "Global Market Surveillance"

        Michal Barzuza, "Lemon Signaling in Cross-Listings"


10:30-10:45:    Coffee Break (Pound Hall, 1st floor)

10:45-12:15:    Session II:

Panel IIA:      Corporate Finance (Pound 102)

  Panel Chair: Alan Schwartz

        Efraim Benmelech and Nittai K. Bergman, "Liquidation Values and the Credibility of
        Financial Contract Renegotiation: Evidence from U.S. Airlines"

        Frank Partnoy and David A. Skeel Jr., "The Promise and Perils of Credit Derivatives"

        Stephen J. Lubben, "Credit Derivatives & the Future Of Chapter 11"


Panel IIB:      Empirical Studies of Tort Reform (Pound 101)

  Panel Chair: Omri Ben-Shahar

        Ronen Avraham and Alvaro Bustos, "The Unexpected Effect of Tort Reform: Do Caps
        Delay Settlements? Evidence from Medical Malpractice Cases"

        Paul H. Rubin and Joanna M. Shepherd, "The Demographics of Tort Reform: Winners
        and Losers"

        Janet Currie and W. Bentley MacLeod, "First Do No Harm? Tort Reform and Birth
        Outcomes"
                                        Saturday, May 5

Panel IIC:      Property and Environmental Law (Pound 107)

  Panel Chair: Christopher Snyder

        Yeon-Koo Che and Ian Gale, "Market versus Non-Market Assignment of Initial
        Ownership"

        Howard F. Chang and Hilary Sigman, "The Effect of Joint and Several Liability under
        Superfund on Brownfields"

        Antonio Nicita, Matteo Rizzolli, and Alessandra Maria Rossi, "Towards a Theory of
        Incomplete Property Rights"


Panel IID:      Antitrust and Governance (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: Daniel Rubinfeld

        Dean V. Williamson, "Organization, Control and the Single Entity Defense in
        Antitrust"

        Jonathan Klick and Robert H. Sitkoff, "Agency Costs, Charitable Trusts, and
        Corporate Control: Evidence from Hershey's Kiss-Off"

        Eric Helland and Jonathan Klick, "The Tradeoff Between Regulation and Litigation:
        Evidence from Insurance Class Actions"


Panel IIE:      Law and Politics: Ideology and Decision-Making (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: John de Figueiredo

        Joshua B. Fischman, "Decision Making Under a Norm of Consensus: An Analysis of
        Three-Judge Panels"

        Stephen Choi and Mitu Gulati, "Bias in Judicial Citations: A Window into the
        Behavior of Judges?"

        Minoru Nakazato, J. Mark Ramseyer and Eric B. Rasmusen, "The Industrial
        Organization of the Japanese Bar: Levels and Determinants of Attorney Income"


12:15-1:30:     Lunch (Ropes Gray Room, Pound Hall, 2nd floor)
                                    Saturday, May 5
1:30-3:00:      Session III:

Panel IIIA:     Theoretical Bankruptcy (Pound 102)

  Panel Chair: George Triantis

        Michelle J. White, "Personal Bankruptcy Law: Abuse Prevention versus Debtor
        Protection"

        Michel A. Robe and Eva-Maria Steiger, "Human Capital and the Toughness of
        Consumer Bankruptcy Law"

        Robert K. Rasmussen, "Where are all the Transnational Bankruptcies?"


Panel IIIB:     Corporate, Securities, and Organizational Law: Comparative and
                International (II) (Pound 101)

  Panel Chair: Katharina Pistor

        John Armour, Audrey Hsu, and Adrian Walters, "The Costs and Benefits of Secured
        Creditor Control in Bankruptcy: Evidence from the UK"

        Bernard S. Black and Vikramaditya Khanna, "Can Corporate Governance Reforms
        Increase Firms' Market Values: Evidence From India"

        Bernard S. Black and Woochan Kim, "The Effect of Board Structure on Firm Value in
        an Emerging Market: IV, DiD, and Firm Fixed Effects Evidence from Korea"

Panel IIIC:     The Dynamics of Settlement (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: Kathryn Spier

        Oren Bar-Gill and Omri Ben-Shahar, "The Prisoners' (Plea Bargain) Dilemma"

        Kevin E. Davis and Katrina M. Wyman, "Sovereigns, Settlement, Delay and Trial"

        Yasutora Watanabe, "Estimating the Degree of Expert's Agency Problem: The Case
        of Medical Malpractice Lawyers"


Panel IIID:     Patents and Litigation (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: Josh Lerner

        Scott E. Atkinson, Alan C. Marco, and John L. Turner, "The Economics of a
        Centralized Judiciary: Uniformity, Forum Shopping, and the Federal Circuit."

        Doug Lichtman and Scott A. Baker, "Discouraging Patent Holdouts through
        Reciprocal Commitments"

        Ronald J. Mann and John Allison, "The Disputed Quality of Software Patents"
                                    Saturday, May 5

Panel IIIE:     Empirical Analyses of Judges and Juries (Pound 107)

  Panel Chair: Jennifer Reinganum

        Theodore Eisenberg and Geoffrey Miller, "Do Juries Add Value?: Evidence from an
        Empirical Study of Jury Trial Waiver Clauses in Large Corporate Contracts"

        Jacob K. Goeree and Leeat Yariv, "An Experimental Study of Jury Deliberation"

        Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Andrew J. Wistrich, Sheri Johnson, Chris Guthrie, "Does
        Unconscious Bias Affect Trial Judges?"


3:00-3:15:      Coffee Break (Pound Hall, 1st Floor)

3:15-4:45:      Session IV:


Panel IVA:      Contracts and Commercial Law (II) (Pound 102)

  Panel Chair: Ian Ayres

        Luca Anderlini, Leonardo Felli, and Andrew Postlewaite, "Should Courts Always
        Enforce What Contracting Parties Write?"

        George Triantis and Albert Choi, "Completing Contracts in the Shadow of Costly
        Verification"

        Marcel Kahan, Shmuel Leshem, and Rangarajan K. Sundaram, "Rights of First
        Refusal"


Panel IVB:      Corporate, Securities, and Organizational Law: Evaluating Governance
                Reforms (Pound 101)

  Panel Chair: Paul Mahoney

        Mira Ganor, "Why do Managers Dismantle Staggered Boards?"

        Kate Litvak, "Sarbanes-Oxley and the Cross-Listing Premium"

        Martijn Cremers and Roberta Romano, "Institutional Investors and Proxy Voting: The
        Impact of the 2003 Mutual Fund Voting Disclosure Regulation"
                                    Saturday, May 5

Panel IVC:      Antitrust Policy (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: William Bishop

        Barak D. Richman and Christopher R. Murray, "Rebuilding Illinois' Bricks: Toward a
        New Approach to Indirect Purchaser Standing"

        Mikko Packalen, "Market Share Exclusion"

        David Gilo, "The Subtle Virtues of Prohibiting Excessive Pricing by Dominant Firms"


Panel IVD:      Criminal Law: Empirical (I) (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: Jeff Stnad

        JJ Prescott, Leigh Linden, and Jonah Rockoff, "The Effects of Sex Offender
        Notification Laws"

        Mirko Draca, Stephen Machin, and Robert Witt, "Panic on the Streets of London:
        Police, Crime and the July 2005 Terror Attacks"

        David S. Abrams and Albert Yoon, "The Returns to Legal Representation"


Panel IVE:      Theoretical Models of Civil Procedure: Evidence and Litigation (Pound 107)

  Panel Chair: Andrew Daughety

        Warren F. Schwartz and Abraham L. Wickelgren, "The Profitability of Sinking Costs
        in Negative Expected Value Claims"

        Chris William Sanchirico, "A Primary Activity Approach to Proof Burdens"

        Alan O. Sykes, "Transnational Tort Litigation as a Trade and Investment Issue"


5:30-6:45:      Cocktails (John Chipman Gray Room, Pound Hall, 2nd floor)
                Sponsored by the Analysis Group

7:00:           Dinner (Ropes Gray Room, Pound Hall, 2nd floor)
                Speaker: Lucian Bebchuk, Harvard University
                "Self-Regulation by Public Firms"
                                     Sunday, May 6
8:00-9:00:      Continental Breakfast

9:00-10:30:     Session V:

Panel VA:        Public and Administrative Law (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: Matthew Spitzer

        Michael D. Gilbert and Josh Levine, "Less Can Be More: Conflicting Ballot Proposals
        and the Highest Vote Rule"

        Jonathan Masur, "Judicial Deference and the Credibility of Agency Commitments"

        Eugene Kontorovich, "What Standing Is Good For"


Panel VB:       Corporate, Securities, and Organizational Law: Hedge Funds (Pound 101)

  Panel Chair: Eric Talley

        Randall S. Thomas, Alon Brav, Wei Jiang, and Frank Partnoy, "Hedge Fund Activism,
        Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance"

        Emanuel Zur and April Klein, "Hedge Fund Activism"

        Douglas J. Cumming and Li Que, "A Law and Finance Analysis of Hedge Funds"


Panel VC:       International and Comparative Law/Legal Systems (I) (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: Rachel Brewster

        Ryan Bubb, Michael R. Kremer, and David I. I. Levine, "The Economics of
        International Refugee Law"

        Thomas J. Miles and Eric Posner, "Treaties, State Size, and Development"

        Andrew J. Green, Michael Trebilcock, and Vivien Milat, "The Enduring Problem of
        WTO Export Subsidies Rules"


Panel VD:       Tort Law: Theory (Pound 102)

  Panel Chair: Jennifer Arlen

        Kathryn E. Spier, "Product Safety, Buybacks, and the Post-Sale Duty to Warn"

        A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, "The Uneasy Case for Product Liability"

        Nuno Garoupa and Chris William Sanchirico, "Decoupling as Transactions Tax"
                                     Sunday, May 6

Panel VE:       Contracts and Commercial Law (III) (Pound 201)

  Panel Chair: George Barker

        Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, "`Unfair'" Dispute Resolution Clauses: Much Ado About
        Nothing?"

        Ofer Grosskopf and Barak Medina, "Rationalizing Drennan: On Irrevocable Offers,
        Bid Shopping and Binding Range"

        Juliet P. Kostritsky, "Plain Meaning vs. Broad Interpretation: How the Risk of
        Opportunism Defeats a Unitary Default Rule for Interpretation"


Panel VF:       Law and Development (Pound 107)

  Panel Chair: Kevin Davis

        Paul Wachtel and Rainer Haselmann, "Institutions and Bank Behavior"

        Vikrant Vig, "Access to Collateral and Corporate Debt Structure: Evidence from a
        Natural Experiment"

        Michael R. Kremer and Tom Wilkening, "Antiquities: Long Term Leases as an
        Alternative to Export Bans"

10:30-10:45:    Coffee Break (Pound Hall, 1st floor)

10:45-12:15:    Session VI:


Panel VIA:      Empirical Analyses of Race and Gender (Pound 101)

  Panel Chair: Margaret Brinig

        Betsey A. Stevenson, "Divorce-Law Changes, Household Bargaining, and Married
        Women's Labor Supply Revisited"

        Joseph P. Price IV and Justin J. Wolfers, "Racial Discrimination among NBA
        Referees"
                                     Sunday, May 6

Panel VIB:      Behavioral Law and Economics/Social Norms (II) (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: Jeffrey Rachlinski

       Alicia Davis Evans, "Do Individual Investors Affect Share Price Accuracy?"

       Ehud Guttel and Alon Harel, "Uncertainty Revisited: Legal Prediction and Legal
       Postdiction"

       Michael S. Barr and Jane Dokko, "Paying to Save: Tax Withholding and Asset
       Allocation Among Low- and Moderate-Income Households"


Panel VIC:      Tax, Public Finance, and Social Welfare (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: Chris Sanchirico

       Louis Kaplow, "Taxation and Social Security"

       Jacob Nussim, "On a Passé Defense: Unjust Enrichment and the Refund of Overpaid
       Taxes"

       Dhammika Dharmapala and James R. Hines Jr., "Which Countries Become Tax
       Havens?"


Panel VID:      Corporate, Securities, and Organizational Law: Stock Market Efficiency
                and Firm Governance (Pound 102)

  Panel Chair: Henry Hansmann

       Art Durnev and Claudine Mangan, "Erroneous Accounting and Industry Investment
       Efficiency"

       Brian Broughman and Jesse M. Fried, "Deviations from Contractual Priority in the
       Sale of VC-Backed Firms"

       Alexander J. Dyck, Luigi Zingales, and Adair Morse, "Who Blows the Whistle on
       Corporate Fraud?"


Panel VIE:      Vertical Relationships (Pound 107)

  Panel Chair: Francine Lafontaine

       Giorgio Zanarone, "Vertical Restraints as Incentive Alignment Mechanisms in Long-
       term Relationships"

       Itai Ater and Oren Rigbi, "Vertical Restraints in Franchised Chains: The Case of
       McDonald's Dollar Menu"

       Ittai Paldor, "The Vertical Restraints' Paradox: Justifying the Different Legal
       Treatment of Price and Non-price Vertical Restraints"
                                         Sunday, May 6

Panel VIF:      Criminal Law: Empirical (II) (Pound 201)

  Panel Chair: Thomas Miles

        Kristin F. Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl, "Why are Immigrants' Incarceration
        Rates So Low? Evidence on Selective Immigration, Deterrence, and Deportation"

        Jeff Strnad, "Should Legal Empiricists Go Bayesian?"


12:15-1:30:     Lunch (Ropes Gray Room, Pound Hall, 2nd floor)
                Sponsored by Cornerstone Research


1:30-3:00:      Session VII:


Panel VIIA:     Information, Incentives, and Efficiency in Employment and
                Litigation (Pound 201)

  Panel Chair: Orley Ashenfelter

        Philip A. Curry and Tilman Klumpp, "Statistical Discrimination in the Criminal
        Justice System: The Case for Fines Instead of Jail"

        Matthew T. Bodie, "Information and the Market for Union Representation"

        Scott A. Moss, "Illuminating Secrecy: A New Economic Analysis of Confidential
        Settlements"


Panel VIIB:     Corporate, Securities, and Organizational Law: Executive Compensation
                (Pound 102)

  Panel Chair: Jeffrey Gordon

        Lucian Bebchuk, Yaniv Grinstein, and Urs Peyer, "Lucky Directors and Lucky CEO's"

        Urs C. Peyer, K. J. Martijn Cremers, and Lucian Bebchuk, "Pay Distribution in The
        Top Executive Team"

        David I. Walker, "Unpacking Backdating: Economic Analysis and Observations"
                                     Sunday, May 6

Panel VIIC:    International and Comparative Law/Legal Systems (II) (Pound 100)

  Panel Chair: Alan Sykes

       Tom Ginsburg, Zach Elkins, and James Melkin, "The Lifespan of Written
       Constitutions"

       Emanuela Carbonara and Francesco Parisi, "Choice of Law and Legal Evolution:
       Rethinking the Market for Legal Rules"

       Abraham Bell, "Optimal Proportionality in the Law of War"


Panel VIID:    Tort Law: General (Pound 107)

  Panel Chair: Henrik Lando

       Ariel Porat, "Offsetting Risks"

       Andrew F. Daughety and Jennifer F. Reinganum, "Products Liability, Signaling and
       Disclosure"

       Joni Hersch and W. Kip Viscusi, "Tort Liability Litigation Costs"


Panel VIIE:    Criminal Law: Theory (Pound 101)

  Panel Chair: Suzanne Scotchmer

       Tomer Blumkin and Yoram Margalioth, "On Terror, Drugs and Racial Profiling"

       A. Mitchell Polinsky, "Optimal Sentences to Induce Prisoners to Behave Well"

       Philip Bond and Kathleen Hagerty, "Preventing Crime Waves"


Panel VIIF:    Law and Politics: Legal Institutions, Taxation, and Economic Growth
               (Pound 200)

  Panel Chair: Mark Ramseyer

       Jacob E. Gersen and Christopher R. Berry, "Representation without Taxation: The
       Fiscal Consequences of Electoral Institutions"

       Dan Bogart, "Political Institutions and the Evolution of Regulation in England:
       Evidence from River and Road Improvement Authorities, 1600-1750."

       Daniel Berkowitz and Karen B. Clay, "Legal Origins and the Evolution of Institutions:
       Evidence from American State Courts"