Economic Analysis of Law: An Overview
Economic Analysis of Law: An Overview
While behavioral insights are vital to any theory of law, they are particularly important as qualifiers of standard economic analysis of law. Standard economic analysis assumes that people are rational maximizers of their own utility. As a normative theory, it ultimately takes into account only human welfare and focuses on maximization of aggregate social utility. This chapter offers a bird’s-eye view of economic analysis of law. It describes the main features of economic analysis in general, with a focus on positive economics, followed by a description of the tenets of the normative branch of economic analysis known as welfare economics.
Keywords: positive economic analysis, rational choice theory, cognitive rationality, motivational rationality, economic modeling, welfare economics, economic analysis of law
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