![handle is hein.journals/cclaysolw5 and id is 1 raw text is:
New Economic Analysis of Law:
Beyond Technocracy and Market
Design
Frank Pasquale*
Abstract
This special issue on New Economic Analysis of Law features illuminating syntheses of
social science and law. What would law and economics look like if macroeconomics were
a concern of scholars now focused entirely on microeconomics? Do emerging online
phenomena, such as algorithmic pricing and platform capitalism, promise to perfect
economic theories of market equilibrium, or challenge their foundations? How did
simplified economic models gain ideological power in policy circles, and how can they be
improved or replaced? This issue highlights scholars whose work has made the legal
academy more than an importer of ideas from other disciplines-and who have,
instead, shown that rigorous legal analysis is fundamental to understanding economic
affairs.
The essays in this issue should help ensure that policymakers' turn to new economic
thinking promotes inclusive prosperity. Listokin, Bayern, and Kwak have identified major
aporias in popular applications of law and economics methods. Ranchordas, Stucke, and
Ezrachi have demonstrated that technological fixes, ranging from digital ranking and
rating systems to artificial intelligence-driven personal assistants, are unlikely to improve
matters unless they are wisely regulated. McCluskey and Rahman offer a blueprint for
democratic regulation, which shapes the economy in productive ways and alleviates
structural inequalities. Taken as a whole, this issue of Critical Anaysis of Law shows that
legal thinkers are not merely importers of ideas and models from economics, but also
active participants, with a great deal to contribute to social science research.
In the film Lost in Translation, actor Bob Harris (played by Bill Murray) travels to Tokyo to
film a commercial for Suntory whiskey.1 After Murray's first, weak delivery of the ad's key
line (For a relaxing time, make it Suntory Time), the director dramatically interrupts the
filming. Speaking in Japanese, he exhorts Harris to imagine he is at rest in his study. The
director demands that Harris say the line slowly, with intense feeling, looking at the
camera like it's an old friend-like Bogart in Casablanca uttering the classic: Here's
looking at you, kid. Harris, who speaks no Japanese, asks a translator what the director
said. He wants you to turn, [and] look at the camera, the translator replies. That's all he
* Professor of Law, University of Maryland.
1 Lost in Translation (Focus Features 2003). Of course, the scene is not merely a commentary on an
inadequate translation function, but also a satire of the clueless privilege of an actor lucky enough to be paid
so much for a brief endorsement.
ISSN 2291-9732](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cclaysolw5&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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