Whereas traditional law and economics proceeds on the assumption that individuals rationally maximize pre-specified utility functions, behavioral approaches to law and economics build on empirically-grounded insights about how individuals actually make decisions. In the last decade, behavioral law and economics has had a wide-ranging impact on legal fields from products liability law to administrative law. Despite this trend, few legal scholars have thought systematically about how the insights of behavioral economics might be leveraged to design more effective and efficient insurance regulation. This is particularly surprising given that a robust literature in behavioral economics already documents systematic discrepancies between the predictions of neoclassical economics and how individuals actually purchase and use insurance. Given that the core goal of insurance regulation is consumer protection, this literature seems ripe to be more fully explored by legal scholars who enjoy comparative expertise in regulatory architecture and design. This panel aims to accelerate that process.
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion.