Law & Econ Prof Blog

Good reading

The New Yorker of this week and next week has articles well worth reading.  This week's issue has a review of William Clark's Academic Charisma and the Rise of the Origins of the Research University (2006) by Anthony Grafton, entitled "The Nutty Professors," available here.  This Friday's edition of the magazine has a long article about Dr. Yunus, the Grameen Bank, and micro-loans by Connie Bruck, "Millions and Millions," available here. 
TSU

MLEA

I'm at the fifth annual conference of the Midwest Law and Economics Association (MLEA) today.  We're gathering at the University of Kansas School of Law in Lawrence, Kansas.  Chris Drahozal and Steve Ware have organized a marvelous conference.  You can find the conference schedule here, with links that work periodically, to the actual papers. 

Incidentally, the University of Kansas is as pretty as its devotees claim, and Lawrence is a charming town. 

TSU

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank

Last Friday the Norwegian Parliamentary Committee that selects the Nobel Peace Prize awarded that prize to Dr. Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.  Yunus and the Grameen Bank pioneered the modern movement for "microloans" -- modest loans to poor entrepreneurs in developing countries.  The Wall Street Journal has a nice article about Dr. Yunus, who has a Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University.  Tyler Cowen had a nice column about microloans in The New York Times in August.  Dr. Yunus also had an interesting op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal about the advisability of microloans in the Gulf States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 
TSU

Dan Ariely and the Behavioral Economics of Pain

Tyler Cowen has a pointer to a wonderful article by Dan Ariely of MIT on the behavioral economics of pain.  Here's Tyler's post at Marginal Revolution.  Follow the link under "writes" for a copy of Dan's remarkable paper on his own horrifying experience with pain. 
TSU

Centers and Thinktanks for Research in Migration

Anyone contemplating work in the area of migration (especially interdisciplinary work) may wish to consult some of the currnet working working papers of various institutes for migration studies in Europe and the US. A short list of such institutes and links to them may be found at

http://www.amid.dk/links/index.html#reseach_centres

Then of course, there is the OECD at www.oecd.org

which has several very quality theoretical and country studies. I shall post some more resources shortly.

JSB

300 Million

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. population will reach 300 million at 7:46 am on Tuesday, October 17, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  (The Census Bureau has an on-line clock -- see the upper-right-hand corner here -- that records the population on the basis of the belief that one person is added every 11 seconds, as a result of there being "one person born every seven seconds, one die[ing] every 13 seconds and one immigrat[ing] every 31 seconds."  The article, available here, is filled with fascinating facts about recent and future U.S. population growth and its effects.  For example, our nation's population reached 200 million in 1967 and will reach 400 million in 2043.  One half of the 300 million people in the country live within 50 miles of the coasts.  The average American drives 79 percent more today than in 1982, even though the miles of roadway have only increased by 3 percent since that date.  What do you think the result has been?  The average American today commutes 100 miles during the work year.  And there's more. 
TSU

Legal education Malpractice

Has someone read James Strouse, Legal Education Malpractice? Intersesting book....