I examine three of the most disputed constitutional issues of our time: capital punishment, state laws banning abortion, and state policies denying the benefit of law to same-sex unions. I explain that if a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court believes that a law (or other policy)...

We use new US county level data (3,058 observations) from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and the size of government at three levels: federal, state and local. Using 3SLS-IV estimation we find that the size of federal, state and local government all either...

Task-technology fit and process virtualization theory are two theories developed by IS scholars to advance our understanding of the role and impact of information systems in business and society. Task-technology fit seeks to explain the use and associated outcomes of technologies designed to...

For law schools, U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings dominate discussion on how law schools compare to one another. In addition to focusing rivalry, U.S. News’ ranking criteria has a powerful influence over the management of U.S. legal education. Also, American Bar Association (ABA)...

Auditors frequently seek informal advice from peers to improve judgment quality, but the conditions under which advice improves auditor judgment are poorly understood. We predict and find evidence of a trust heuristic among auditors receiving advice from advisors with whom they share a social...

To combat climate change successfully will require innovations in regulatory design and technology. This article was prepared for the September 2010 Yale Law School and Unitar Conference on "Strengthening Institutions to Address Climate Change and Advance a Green Economy." The article focuses on...

We develop a model of figurative or indirect speech, which may convey a meaning that differs from its literal meaning. The model yields analytical conditions for speech to be figurative in equilibrium and delivers a number of comparative statics results. For instance, it predicts that the...

Before it can sell a prescription drug lawfully in interstate commerce, a manufacturer must prove to the satisfaction of the Food and Drug Administration that the drug is both safe and effective. Congress approved this requirement in 1962 unanimously. Four decades of changes in the drug market...

U.S. auditors are concerned that the greater imprecision in accounting standards under IFRS will lead to increased legal liability. We conduct an experiment with 749 mock jurors to examine how juries evaluate auditor conduct under precise and imprecise standards. We find that juries return more...