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Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and Economics on American Justice

Author

Listed:
  • Elliott Ash

    (Unknown)

  • Daniel L. Chen

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Suresh Naidu

    (Unknown)

Abstract

This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the eects of the early law and economics movement on the U.S. judiciary. Using the universe of published opinions in U.S. Circuit Courts and 1 million District Court criminal sentencing decisions linked to judge identity, we estimate the eect of attendance in the con- troversial Manne economics training program, an intensive course attended by almost half of federal judges between 1976 and 1999. After attending economics training, participating judges use more economics language, render more conser- vative verdicts in economics cases, rule against regulatory/taxation agencies more often, and impose longer criminal sentences. These results are robust to adjusting for a wide variety of covariates that predict the timing of attendance. Non-Manne judges randomly exposed to Manne peers on previous cases increase their use of economics language in subsequent opinions, suggesting economics ideas diused throughout the judiciary.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Elliott Ash & Daniel L. Chen & Suresh Naidu, 2026. "Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and Economics on American Justice," Post-Print hal-05582339, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05582339
    DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjaf042
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05582339v1
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    Cited by:

    1. José M. Menudo & Francisco A. Borja, 2024. "Optimists in the Andes: The Impact of the French Liberal School on Economic Education in 19th Century Andean America," Working Papers 24.01, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    2. Bowles, Samuel & Carlin, Wendy & Subramanyam, Sahana, 2025. "Civil society comes of age in economics: Tracking a century of research," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    3. Eric Sheppard, 2025. "Legalized imperialism: On Shaina Potts’ Judicial Territory," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 57(6), pages 831-835, September.
    4. Benito Arruñada, 2021. "La seguridad jurídica en España. Documento de discusión (versión revisada y comentada)," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2021-18, FEDEA.
    5. Chen, Daniel L., 2018. "Judicial Analytics and the Great Transformation of American Law," TSE Working Papers 18-974, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    6. Chen, Daniel L., 2018. "Judicial Analytics and the Great Transformation of American Law," IAST Working Papers 18-87, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    7. Tim Hallett & Matthew Gougherty, 2024. "Learning to Think Like an Economist without Becoming One: Ambivalent Reproduction and Policy Couplings in a Masters of Public Affairs Program," American Sociological Review, , vol. 89(2), pages 227-255, April.
    8. Pierre Cahuc & Stéphane Carcillo & Bérengère Patault & Flavien Moreau, 2024. "Judge Bias in Labor Courts and Firm Performance," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 1319-1366.
    9. Alessandra Foresta1 Rigissa Megalokonomou2 Michael Vlassopoulos3, 2026. "Fiscal Crises and Judicial Enforcement: Evidence from the Greek Supreme Court," Monash Economics Working Papers 2026-11, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    10. Markus Eberhardt & Giovanni Facchini & Valeria Rueda, 2023. "Gender Differences in Reference Letters: Evidence from the Economics Job Market," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(655), pages 2676-2708.
    11. Paul Baumgardner, 2019. "Ronald Reagan, the Modern Right, and…the Rise of the Fem-Crits," Laws, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, October.
    12. Goutsmedt, Aurélien & Sergi, Francesco & Claveau, François & Fontan, Clément, 2023. "The Different Paths of Central Bank Scientization: The Case of the Bank of England," SocArXiv jzwdt, Center for Open Science.
    13. Yangyang Chen & Abhinav Goyal & Madhu Veeraraghavan & Leon Zolotoy, 2026. "Litigation risk and IPO underpricing: evidence from federal judge ideology," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 210-251, March.
    14. Samuel Bowles & Wendy Carlin, 2020. "What Students Learn in Economics 101: Time for a Change," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 176-214, March.
    15. Lancieri, Filippo Maria & Valleti, Tommaso, 2024. "Towards an effective merger review policy: A defence of rebuttable structural presumptions," Working Papers 345, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    16. Aurélien Goutsmedt & Francesco Sergi & François Claveau & Clément Fontan, 2025. "Not a steamroller, a 3D process: Scientization at the Bank of England," Post-Print hal-04267004, HAL.
    17. Shanjukta Nath & Jiwon Hong & Jae Ho Chang & Keith Warren & Subhadeep Paul, 2025. "Recidivism and Peer Influence with LLM Text Embeddings in Low Security Correctional Facilities," Papers 2509.20634, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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