Advanced Introduction to Behavioral Law and Economics

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

This highly informative Advanced Introduction explores the diverse and far-reaching legal implications of some of the key findings of behavioral economics. Cass Sunstein, a leader in this field, adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examining cutting-edge topics such as air pollution and climate change; public health and safety; pandemic response; occupational safety; road safety; and contract, property, and tort law. This Advanced Introduction provides a much-needed assessment and analysis of the law as a critical domain for the use of behavioral economics, and investigates how techniques including nudging, mandates, and taxes can be used to enhance the effectiveness and improve the implementation of the law.

Key Features:

• Explains how legal systems and governments employ behavioral economics


• Explores the crucial relationship between law, behavioral economics and human welfare


• Highlights the use of algorithms in law and policy, considering the relationship between algorithms, noise and bias


• Examines key concepts from behavioral economics including sludge, present bias, loss aversion, unrealistic optimism, and anchoring

This erudite Advanced Introduction will be an essential read for legal students, academics and researchers with an interest in behavioral economics, public policy and economic psychology. Highlighting how behavioral economics interacts with various other disciplines, it will also prove valuable to professionals and practitioners working in law, medicine, education and politics.