In a criminal trial, a jury may observe characteristics about the defendant (or victim) and use them to form a belief on the likelihood of guilt. Many evidentiary rules attempt to limit this inference. If jury beliefs are rational, such rules may be counterproductive. Any prohibition on the use...

A capital trial is a costly affair. When a local government bears the expense of trial, it must raise funds or reallocate them from other sources. In Texas, among other states, the cost of trial is borne primarily at the county level. A panel of Texas county spending over the last decade,...

The statistical power of a hit rates test of taste-based discrimination varies markedly with the parameters of the application. For the presentation of multiple tests, power should be reported alongside p-values. Tests should also adjust for differences in search intensity whenever possible. If...

The implications of a strategic model of plea bargaining are threefold. First, prosecutors induce the innocent to plead guilty when trial costs are high. Second, plea bargaining unequivocally increases wrongful convictions. Lastly, police share an important role in minimizing wrongful...

Prior to a collective binary choice, members of a group receive binary signals correlated with the better option. Expanding membership may provide no benefit, but expertise is everywhere beneficial. If the group ignores any statistical dependence among the signals, as through majority vote, an...

The legal standard of proof in any criminal trial is reasonable doubt, but economic models argue for a variable standard. Two economic arguments are tested with data on federal trials over the last decade. First, a trier of fact should respond to a more serious charge with a higher burden of...

A Bayesian agent evaluates a stream of information over a finite period before deciding on which of two alternatives to adopt. At any point, the agent is free to convert information into an informative, binary signal. When information arrives at a roughly constant rate, an agent who frequently...

The simple circular model of horizontal product differentiation, where firms compete in price, implies an excessive entry of firms in equilibrium. When non-monotonic network effects are present, this result no longer holds. If consumers differ in their optimal number of other consumers choosing...

Typically, judges retain sentencing discretion in criminal cases, but in some states this discretion is given to juries. One criticism of jury sentencing is that jurors will be tempted to issue "compromise verdicts," where they return a guilty verdict but a light sentence when they are uncertain...