Behavioral Law and Economics: Empirical Methods

Christoph Engel

No 2013_01, Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods from Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Abstract: Originally, behavioral law and economics was an exercise in exploring the implications of key findings from behavioral economics (and psychology) for the analysis and reform of legal institutions. Yet as the new discipline matures, it increasingly replaces foreign evidence by fresh evidence, directly targeted to the legal research question. This chapter surveys the key methods: field evidence, survey data, vignette and lab experiment, discusses their pros and cons, illustrates them with key publications, and concludes with methodological paths for fu-ture development. It quantifies statements with descriptive statistics about the 77 behavioral papers that have been published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies since its foundation until the end of 2012.

Keywords: behavioral law and economics; law and psychology; criminology; field data; survey data; vignette; lab experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C01 C83 C91 D02 D03 K00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hme, nep-law and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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