Biography

Director, John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics; Professor (by courtesy) of Economics; Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

A pioneering American figure in the applications of economic theory to law, A. Mitchell Polinsky is a prolific scholar, producing work on the economic analysis of a wide variety of legal issues, from property to contract law to liability and punitive damages. He has written major articles on the economic efficiency of various forms of legal sanctions in achieving deterrence across a range of problems, including criminal law, contract, and tort disputes. Professor Polinsky is the founder and director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at Stanford Law School. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a president of the American Law and Economics Association, and is currently a research associate in the Law and Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1979, he was a member of the faculty at Harvard University.

Professor Polinsky has an appointment (by courtesy) with the Stanford University Department of Economics.

Key Works

• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, Aligning the Interests of Lawyers and Clients, 5 American Law & Economics Review 165-188 (Spring 2003).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, The Economic Theory of Public Enforcement of Law, 38 Journal of Economic Literature 45-77 (March 2000)
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, Punitive Damages: An Economic Analysis, 111 Harvard Law Review 869-962 (1998).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Yeon-Koo Che, Decoupling Liability: Optimal Incentives for Care and Litigation, 22.4 RAND Journal of Economics 562 (Winter 1991).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, The Optimal Tradeoff Between the Probability and Magnitude of Fines, 69 The American Economic Review 880-891 (Dec.,1979).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Economic Analysis of Law
• Law and Economics Seminar

Programs

• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Josephine Scott Crocker Professor of Law and Economics

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• A. Mitchell Polinsky, An Introduction to Law and Economics, 4th edition, New York: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2011.
• A. Mitchell Polinsky, Steven Shavell, A Skeptical Attitude about Product Liability is Justified: A Reply to Professors Goldberg and Zipursky, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 399 (2010).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell, A Skeptical Attitude About Product Liability Is Justified: A Reply to Professors Goldberg and Zipursky, 123 Harvard Law Review 1949-1958 (2010)
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, The Uneasy Case for Product Liability, 123 Harvard Law Review 1437 (April 2010) / Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 381 (September 2009).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, Public Enforcement of Law, in Criminal Law and Economics, Nuno Garoupa, ed., Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2009.
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, Punitive Damages, in Tort Law and Economics, Michael G. Faure, ed., Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2009.
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, The Optimal Tradeoff between the Probability and Magnitude of Fines, in Economics of Criminal Law, Steven D. Levitt and Thomas J. Miles, editors, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2008. p. 63.
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, Law and Economics, in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Lawrence Blume and Steven Durlauf, eds., 2nd edition (forthcoming 2008).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, Public Enforcement of Law, in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Lawrence Blume and Steven Durlauf, eds., 2nd edition (forthcoming 2008).
• A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, eds., Handbook of Law and Economics, Vols. I & II, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishing, November 2007.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
• President (1993-1994), American Law and Economics Association

Honors and Awards

• Guggenheim fellow, 1993-94