We elucidate, connect, and synthesize the literature that employs economics to study the individual rights and freedoms protected by the constitutional amendments comprising the Bill of Rights, especially as they relate to crime. Economics is uniquely suited to studying decisions involving...

We use event study methodology to examine the effects of product liability litigation on firms in the automobile and pharmaceutical industries. We find that the filing of a lawsuit, or news stories that subsequently lead to the filing of a lawsuit, is associated with significant losses in firm...

Evidence on the deterrent effect of capital punishment is important for many states that are currently reconsidering their position on the issue. We examine the deterrent hypothesis by using county-level, postmoratorium panel data and a system of simultaneous equations. The procedure we employ...