Volokh and Ribstein, Conspirators: Blogs and Law and Economics
Posted: 22 Feb 2011
Date Written: February 21, 2011
Abstract
This paper considers the relationship between blogs and Law and Economics from two perspectives: the main aspects of the law and economics approach to blogging, and the influence of blogs in the diffusion of Law and Economics. The article explores how blogs are a modern way of low cost domestic journalism and the increasing size of the blogosphere is a current challenge in terms of free speech and quality of the information. At the same time, blogs such as “The Volokh Conspiracy” are playing an interesting role in the American legal academia as a real instrument to breakdown the papers posted in specific scholar networks such as SSRN (Social Science Research Network), REPEC (Research Papers in Economics) and its branches IDEAS, ECONPAPERS, INOMICS, as well as Selected Works and Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Regarding to this point, some scholars have studied the relationship between the presence of legal scholars in blogs and the number of downloads in academic networks. The last part of the article (“From book to blog; from blog to book) explores well known cases of how blogs are transforming the traditional market of books, such as Levitt – Dubner’s “Freakonomics,” Posner’s “A Failure of Capitalism” and Posner- Becker’s “Uncommon sense: Economic Insights, from Marriage to terrorism.”
Keywords: Law and Economics, Blogs, Social Science Research Network, Books, Domestic Journalism
JEL Classification: K00, K19
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation