Biography

Alison D. Morantz
Professor of Law and John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar
Stanford Law School

A scholar whose work has explored the law and economics of protective labor regulation, the enforcement of workplace safety laws, and legal history, Alison D. Morantz seeks to parse the real–world effects of legal and policy reform. Much of her recent empirical research examines the effects of unionization on mine safety and the intensity of regulatory scrutiny, the ways in which statistical techniques can be used to target the nation's most hazardous employers, the consequences of permitting firms to opt out of workers' compensation, and the impact of devolving enforcement authority from federal to state regulators.

Morantz is the principal investigator of multi–year research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and Co–Director of the Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution's ADR Research Initiative. In the spring of 2010, she was one of four experts appointed, at Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis's request, to a federal panel that will provide an independent analysis of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s internal review following the explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine on April 5, 2010, that claimed 29 miners' lives.

After receiving an A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard in 1993, Morantz earned an M.Phil. from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship; a J.D. from Yale Law School; and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. She subsequently clerked for Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and worked as a union–side labor lawyer and antidiscrimination advocate in Boston, before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2004.

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Contracts
• Employment Law

Programs

• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Professor of Law and John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar
• Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution, Co–director of the ADR Research Initiative

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Lewis V. Wade, Jeffery Kohler, Michael Sapko, Alison Morantz, An Independent Panel Assessment of an Internal Review of MSHA Enforcement Actions at the Upper Big Branch Mine South, Requested by The Honorable Hilda L. Solis, Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor, March 22, 2012.
• Alison Morantz, Does Unionization Strengthen Regulatory Enforcement? An Empirical Study of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, 14 New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy 697 (2011).
• Alison D. Morantz, Coal Mine Safety: Do Unions Make a Difference?, Stanford Law & Economics Olin Paper Series Paper No. 413, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Law School, 2011.
• Alison Morantz, Opting Out of Workers' Compensation in Texas: A Survey of Large, Multistate Nonsubscribers, in Regulation versus Litigation , Daniel P. Kessler, editor, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
• Alison D. Morantz, The Elusive Union Safety Effect:Towards a New Empirical Research Agenda, Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, pg. 130 (2009).
• Alison D. Morantz, Has Devolution Injured American Workers? State and Federal Enforcement of Construction Safety, 25 Journal of Law, Economics & Organization 183 (2009).
• Alison D. Morantz and Alexandre Mas, Does Post-Accident Drug Testing Reduce Injuries? Evidence from a Large Retail Chain, 10 American Law & Economics Review 246 (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).

Affiliations & Honors

Research Grants, Contracts, Fellowships & Awards

• National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health – Research Contract No. 200–2009–28820 (2009–12). Designing a Pilot Program for Strategic Mine Safety and Health Improvements through the Use of Surveillance Data to Guide Targeted Inspection Activities. Principal Investigator. Award Amount: $619,814.
• National Science Foundation – Grant No. 0850636 (2009–11). Swapping Regulation for Litigation: The Effects of Workers' Compensation Opt–Out on the Injury Claims of Large Multi–State Firms. Principal Investigator. Award Amount: $207,974.
• American Society for Legal History – Surrency Prize (2007) (awarded for There's No Place Like Home: Homestead Exemption and Judicial Constructions of "Family" in Nineteenth–Century America, 24 LAW & HISTORY REVIEW 1 (Summer 2006)).
• Workers' Compensation Research Institute – John Jones Scholarship (2005). Awarded to scholars whose research will contribute to knowledge in the field of workers' compensation. Co–recipient (with Alexandre Mas). Award amount: $10,000.
• Center to Protect Workers' Rights – Small Study Grant No. 02–1–PS (2002–2003). Award amount: $20,000. New Methods for OSHA Enforcement in the Construction Industry. Co–investigator (with David Weil, Principal Investigator).
• National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Pre–Doctoral Fellowship in Aging and Health Economics (2000–2001) and Project Development Award (2001–2002).
• World Health Organization – sponsored study (2000–2001). Designing and Implementing an Effective Legal Strategy for the Enforcement of a Vaccine Purchase–Commitment Contract. Co–author (with Robert Sloane).

Professional Memberships & Research Affiliations

• Massachusetts Bar
• National Employment Lawyers Association
• Labor and Employment Relations Association
• American Economic Association
• American Law & Economics Association
• Society for Empirical Legal Studies