>From: Bruce Benson I teach a course under the heading of "Economics and Law" at the undergraduate level that gives students a mix of traditional "Chicago-style" law and economics, critically examined (particularly regarding claims of efficiency of common law, etc.), and my own material on private alternatives. I have students read both the Cooter-Ulen textbook, and my book on The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State. Essentially, I emphasize that much of traditional law and economics either: (1) takes the laws as given and examines the economic implications of these laws, or (2) examines new laws (particularly precedent) from the perspective of the "efficiency principle" that has evolved from the Coase Theorem, in order to explain why the law facilitates economic efficiency. I then point out that this approach to law ignores the institutional environment and the incentives of key players (e.g., judges, legislators, police). I explain that different institutional environments generate different incentives, focusing on "stateless" legal systems as an alternative. I also teach a graduate course in "microeconomic theory" but it is not a typical neoclassical price theory course. I focus on property rights, transactions costs, and the role of institutions including the state. Students read journal articles rather than a textbook, including articles by Alchian, Coase, Hayek, North, Umbeck, Cheung, Tullock, De Alessi, McCloskey, Libecap, Tollison, me, etc.. There is no mathematics in the course, just economics. It is not a course in libertarian thought by any means, but it does attack the concept of "market failure", undermining arguments for government actions to alleviate externalities and provide public goods. ============================================================================ I have, at various times, thought that it would be interesting to offer a course that stresses free-market principles through the reading of fiction. I have never followed up on this thought, in part because I am do not have an extensive list of fiction that is well written, accessible to undergraduate students, and provides the kinds of free-market/libertarian principles that I would want to emphasize. One of my own favorites is "King Rat" because I could focus on both the emergence of a property rights system and the role of entrepreneurs in making a market, while also noting that those with "power" or authority over the centralized allocation of goods are likely to favor themselves (i.e., self-interest leads to desirable results in market institutions, and undesirable results in centralized authoritarian institutions). [...] Bruce Benson