Law and Economics

I thank Daniel Abebe, Barry E. Adler, Kenneth Ayotte, Adam B. Badawi, Douglas G. Baird, Omri Ben-Shahar, Erin M. Casey, Stephen Choi, Lee Anne Fennell, Joseph A. Grundfest, M. Todd Henderson, William Hubbard, Mitchell Kane, Ashley Keller, Randall L. Klein, Saul Levmore, Douglas Lichtman, Anup Malani, Troy McKenzie, Jon D. Michaels, Anthony Niblett, Randal C. Picker, Eric Posner, Robert K. Rasmussen, Andres Sawicki, Naomi Schoenbaum, Julia Simon-Kerr, Richard Squire, Lior Strahilevitz, Matthew Tokson, George G. Triantis, Noah Zatz, participants at the Annual Meeting of the American Law and Economics Association, participants at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Law and Economics Association, participants at the University of Chicago Law School Faculty Works-in-Progress Workshop, participants at the University of Southern California Center in Law, Economics, and Organization Workshop, and the faculties of Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, Emory Law School, Marquette University Law School, Stanford Law School, the University of Alabama School of Law, University of California Irvine School of Law, the University of Chicago Law School, University of Colorado Law School, University of Georgia Law School, the University of Minnesota Law School, and Vanderbilt University Law School for helpful comments and discussion.

The author thanks Ishan Bhabha, Christopher Buccafusco, Mark Egerman, Sam Erman, Richard Fallon, Terry Fisher, Sandy Henderson, Richard Posner, David Post, Henry Smith, Rebecca Stone, Cass Sunstein, and Elisabeth Theodore for comments and advice on previous drafts.

Prepared for the Understanding Education in the United States: Its Legal and Social Implications Symposium held at the University of Chicago Law School on June 17 and 18, 2011. I am grateful to participants in that conference for helpful comments and to Gabrielle Holburt, Alice Hwang, Yuan Ji, Christine Ku, Jimmy Li, and Julie Wang for research assistance. I am also grateful to the University of Chicago Law Review for excellent editorial assistance.

Many thanks to Michael Abramowicz, Amitai Aviram, Eric Biber, Ralph Brubaker, Thomas Colby, Dan Cole, John Colombo, Dhammika Dharmapala, Kirsten Engel, Lee Fennell, David Fontana, Eric Freyfogle, Robert Glicksman, Shi-Ling Hsu, Bruce Huber, Heidi Hurd, Christine Hurt, David Hyman, Charles Imohiosen, Eric Johnson, Robin Juni, Richard Kaplan, Robin Kar, Patrick Keenan, Dan Kelly, Jay Kesan, Scott Kieff, William Kovacic, Robert Lawless, Michael Livermore, Tim Malloy, Jonathan Masur, Jud Mathews, Brian McCall, Emily Meazell, John Nagle, Jonathan Nash, Lee Paddock, Richard Pierce, Jeffrey Pojanowski, Dara Purvis, Andrew Reeves, Larry Ribstein, Richard Ross, J.B. Ruhl, Steven Schooner, Karen Bradshaw Schulz, Justin Sevier, Jamelle Sharpe, Nicola Sharpe, Paul Stancil, Suja Thomas, Robert Tuttle, Lesley Wexler, Jonathan Wiener and Verity Winship for their comments and suggestions. Thanks also to the editors of The University of Chicago Law Review, including Liz Austin, Brad Hubbard, and Matt Rozen, for outstanding editorial support.

Thanks to Emily Berman, Ryan Bubb, Stephen Lee, Nancy Morawetz, Moran Sedah, Peter Schuck, Fred Vars, and workshop participants at The University of Chicago Law School, New York University School of Law, and The University of Alabama School of Law for helpful comments. Thanks also to Kuntal Cholera and David Woolston for research assistance.

We thank Jane Baron, Craig Green, Zev Eigen, Yuval Feldman, Bob Hillman, Greg Mandel, Rafael Pardo, Alex Radus, Brishen Rogers, David Zaring, and participants at faculty colloquia at Vanderbilt Law School, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, William & Mary Law School, as well as at the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies for comments on earlier drafts.

This Article was prepared for The University of Chicago’s Immigration Law and Institutional Design Symposium, held at The University of Chicago Law School on June 15 and 16, 2012. Thanks to the participants in that conference and Adam Cox for comments, and to Ellie Norton and Randy Zack for helpful research assistance. The Russell Baker Scholarship Fund at The University of Chicago Law School provided financial assistance.