Norms in Law and Economics

Eric Bennett Rasmusen, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
Richard McAdams, U. of Chicago School of Law

Abstract

Everyone realizes the importance of social norms as guides to behavior and substitutes for law, but coming up with a paradigm for analyzing norms has been surprisingly difficult, as has systematic empirical study. In this chapter of the Handbook of Law and Economics, edited by A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell and forthcoming in 2006, we survey the topic.