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Encyclopedia of Law and Economics pp 1248–1254Cite as

Law and Economics, History of

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Abstract

The roots of law & economics lie in late 19th century Continental Europe. However, this early movement did not persist and was essentially cut short cut short in the 1930s. After World War II, modern law & economics was (re-)invented in the United States and subsequently grew into a major field of research at U.S. law schools. In Continental Europe, law & economics was re-imported as a discipline within economics, driven by economists interested in legal issues rather than by legal scholars. Hence, the European discourse was more strongly influenced by formal analysis, using mathematical models. Today, research in the U.S., Europe, and in other countries around the world, including Latin America and Asia, uses formal, empirical, and intuitive methods. New subfields, such as behavioral law & economics and experimental law & economics, have grown in the U.S. and in Europe during the past two decades.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Emanual Towfigh and Michael Kurschilgen for helpful comments, Brian Cooper for proofreading, and Jessica Beyer for helpful research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fordham University School of Law, New York, NY, USA

    Martin Gelter

  2. Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany

    Kristoffel Grechenig

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  1. Martin Gelter
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  2. Kristoffel Grechenig
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Correspondence to Martin Gelter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Gelter, M., Grechenig, K. (2019). Law and Economics, History of. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_55

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