Professor David Friedman
Fall 2012
The course will have a midterm and a final. In
addition, each student is expected to pick one side of a law
case and present, either orally or in writing, a case for that
side based on economic arguments. You may choose any case, past
or present, provided that the case was not actually argued on
economic grounds and is not discussed in either Law's Order
or Richard Posner's Economic Analysis of Law. Oral
arguments should be about ten to fifteen minutes, written
arguments about three to five pages. If you want to give an oral
presentation, speak to me in advance so I can fit it into the
schedule.
Law's
Order: Webbed page images with
virtual footnotes
Audio Recordings of classes and pictures of whiteboard from Spring 2011
Video
recordings of this year's classes.
One way of remembering ideas is by the stories that go with them--from the Bionic Burglar Alarm to the Rational Voodoo Killer. Here is a list of story titles that you may find useful. We will cover all of them by the end of the semester
Midterm Spring 1997
Midterm Fall 1995
Midterm
2000
Final Fall 1995
Final
Spring 2011
My Price Theory textbook is webbed; you may find parts of it useful for explaining economic concepts in more detail. They include:
Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which present a general introduction to economics.
Chapter 11, which discusses strategic behavior, game theory, et. al.
Chapter 15, which discusses economic efficiency and related concepts.
Chapter 18, which discusses market failure problems, including externalities.
Additional chapters are available through the table of contents page.