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The Failure of Judges and the Rise of Regulators

Andrei Shleifer

Originally published in Texas Law Review

Andrei Shleifer is undoubtedly among the world's most important economists. By standard citation measures, no one else is anywhere close. For example, his nearly 19,000 citations in the RePEc rankings as of October 2012 place him ahead of Nobel Prize winners such as James Heckman (12,212), Joseph Stiglitz (11,431), and Robert Lucas (9,314). His work on corporate finance, behavioral finance, and transition economics earned him the American Economic Association's prestigious John Bates Clark medal in 1999. Perhaps not even international scandal will keep Shleifer from taking his place among the Nobelists.

 

Andrei Shleifer is undoubtedly among the world's most important economists. By standard citation measures, no one else is anywhere close. For example, his nearly 19,000 citations in the RePEc rankings 1 as of October 2012 place him ahead of Nobel Prize 2 winners such as James Heckman (12,212), 3 Joseph Stiglitz (11,431), 4 and Robert Lucas (9,314). 5 His work on corporate finance, behavioral finance, and transition economics earned him the American Economic Association's prestigious John Bates Clark medal in 1999. 6 Perhaps not even international scandal will keep Shleifer from taking his place among the Nobelists. 7
 
Shleifer's influence in legal scholarship is almost as large. With more than 1,000 Westlaw citations, 8 Shleifer would compare favorably to most law and economics specialists in top U.S. law schools. 9 Given all of this, the publication of Shleifer's book The Failure of Judges and the Rise of Regulators 10 as part of the MIT Press's Walras-Pareto Lecture series is sure to be of interest to a wide range of legal scholars, students, and policy makers - and especially to those who do not have access to JSTOR 11 and a printer, 12 since all but the introductory chapter previously appeared in academic journals.

 

Andrei Shleifer is undoubtedly among the world's most important economists. By standard citation measures, no one else is anywhere close. For example, his nearly 19,000 citations in the RePEc rankings as of October 2012 place him ahead of Nobel Prize winners such as James Heckman (12,212), Joseph Stiglitz (11,431), and Robert Lucas (9,314). His work on corporate finance, behavioral finance, and transition economics earned him the American Economic Association's prestigious John Bates Clark medal in 1999. Perhaps not even international scandal will keep Shleifer from taking his place among the Nobelists. 

Shleifer's influence in legal scholarship is almost as large. With more than 1,000 Westlaw citations, Shleifer would compare favorably to most law and economics specialists in top U.S. law schools. Given all of this, the publication of Shleifer's book The Failure of Judges and the Rise of Regulators as part of the MIT Press's Walras-Pareto Lecture series is sure to be of interest to a wide range of legal scholars, students, and policy makers - and especially to those who do not have access to JSTOR and a printer, since all but the introductory chapter previously appeared in academic journals.

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