Biography
A scholar whose research has explored the impact of occupational safety and health laws, the law and economics of workplace regulation, the comparative effectiveness of state and federal enforcement, and legal history, Alison Morantz seeks to parse the real-world effects of legal and policy reform. Much of her current empirical research examines policy-relevant aspects of occupational safety and health, such as the effect of devolving the enforcement of regulations from federal to state officials, and how differences in state laws can affect the frequency of workers’ compensation claims. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2004, Professor Morantz was an associate at Pyle, Rome, Lichten & Ehrenberg, working as a union-side labor lawyer and antidiscrimination advocate. She clerked for Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
In the News
Courses & Programs
Courses
Programs
Publications & Cases
- Alison D. Morantz, Has Devolution Injured American Workers? State and Federal Enforcement of Construction Safety, 25 Journal of Law, Economics & Organization (forthcoming 2009).
- Alexandre Mas and Alison D. Morantz, Does Post-Accident Drug Testing Reduce Injuries? Evidence from a Large Retail Chain, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 337 (2007) / American Law & Economics Review (forthcoming 2008).
- Alison D. Morantz, There’s No Place Like Home: Homestead Exemption And Judicial Construction of "Family" in Nineteenth-Century America, 24 Law and History Review 1 (Summer 2006).
- Alison D. Morantz, Construction Site Regulation and OSHA Decentralization, Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting Industrial Relations Research Association (2003).
- Alison D. Morantz, Teens in the Workforce, 11 Regional Review of Boston Federal Reserve 18 (2001).
- Alison D. Morantz, Desegregation at Risk: Threat and Reaffirmation in Charlotte, in Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown V. Board of Education Gary Orfield ed., New York, NY:The New Press, 1996. p. 179-206.
- Alison D. Morantz, Money and Choice in Kansas City: Major Investments with Modest Returns, in Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown V. Board of Education Gary Orfield ed., New York, NY:The New Press, 1996. p. 241-263.
Affiliations & Honors
Professional Affiliations
- Member, National Employment Lawyers Association
- Member, American Law & Economics Association

- amorantz@law.stanford.edu
- 650 725.5256
- Curriculum Vitae
- SSRN Published Papers
Education
- BA, Harvard University, 1993
- MSc (Economics of Development), University of Oxford, 1995
- JD, Yale Law School, 2000
- PhD (Economics), Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2001
Expertise
- Antidiscrimination Law
- Contracts
- Employment Discrimination
- Labor and Employment Law
- Law and Economics
- Legal History
- Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
- Public Policy and Empirical Studies
- Race and the Law