Academic Conferences
The John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics conducts an academic conference each year that strives to push economic analysis beyond its traditional subject areas in law and broaden the appeal of the conference to other disciplines.
Friday and Saturday, April 17-18, 2009
Contact: Joyce Holt
Full Schedule
After 50 years of legal and regulatory efforts to promote equality of opportunity in workplaces, one might expect social scientists to have reached consensus on what measures work to combat employment discrimination. But no such consensus exists. Social scientists offer many opinions on equal employment opportunity “best practices,” but surprisingly little evidence supports many of these opinions.
The key to advancing knowledge about how to combat workplace discrimination effectively is to determine which of the many competing assertions about the incidence, causes, and cures of workplace discrimination are supported by sound evidence. The 2009 Olin Conference at the University of Virginia will bring together leading scholars from economics, law, political science, psychology, sociology, and statistics to synthesize what we know about what works and what does not work in combating workplace discrimination and to discuss how we can most effectively learn what works and then communicate this information to organizations, courts, and policymakers.
Friday and Saturday, February, 22-23, 2008
Contact: Joyce Holt
Full Schedule
Dramatic and controversial changes have occurred in both consumer lending markets and the laws that regulate these markets. This conference brings together scholars in the fields of law, economics, and finance to discuss some of the pressing issues that have emerged from the recent changes with an aim to better evaluate various legislative proposals that have been proposed in response. Papers cover a range of topics from payday lending to subprime mortgage to consumer bankruptcy.
Friday and Saturday, March 23-24, 2007
Contact: Joyce Holt
Full Schedule
Recent advances in economic theory, as well as a growing body of empirical evidence, have highlighted the strong connections between the fields of law and finance. Today's financial economists rely heavily on the characteristics of legal institutions and contracts to explain the behavior of corporations and markets, while today's scholars in law and economics draw on financial theories and data to critically examine the organization and structure of law. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly common for law and finance scholars to work together in pursuing their research endeavors. This conference brings together top researchers in the fields of law and finance to discuss the topics that are of cutting-edge importance. The Conference is co-sponsored with the McIntire School of Commerce.
Friday and Saturday, February 24-25, 2006
Contact: Joyce Holt
Full Schedule
Both legal and economic scholars have critically examined various aspects of modern organization since Coase's seminal article on the theory of the firm in 1937, including: an organization's economic and legal boundary, its hierarchical structure, incentive and promotion within an organization, and control within and across organizations. This conference aims to bring together scholars from the allied fields to examine the recent developments in the field and also to provide a more holistic view of the modern organization theory.
Friday and Saturday, October 1-2, 2004
Contact: Joyce Holt
Full Schedule
Real options techniques are widely used in finance and economics to evaluate investment flexibility and to design multi-period strategies that maximize returns from flexibility. Legal scholars have begun to apply real options analysis to a range of legal contexts in which a party enjoys a discretionary right: for example, the right of an actor to commit a wrong (or breach a contract) and incur liability, the right of the innocent party to choose among remedies, the right to file a law suit and proceed through multi-staged litigation. This conference brings together scholars who have introduced options analysis to law in their prior writing, to examine a range of legal options.
Friday and Saturday, February 27-28, 2004
Contact: Joyce Holt
Full Schedule
This conference assembles scholars from law school and business school faculties to discuss recent empirical work in the fields of corporate, bankruptcy, and securities law. This work is part of a broader trend towards empirical research in law and economics. The goal of the conference is to not only evaluate recent, notable findings, but also to promote greater dialogue between law and business faculties on topics of mutual interest and on empirical methodology. The papers covered a range of topics from insider trading and corporate governance in Southeast Asia to the governance structure of spinoffs.
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