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Topic · Economics and Econometrics

Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems

Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems is a research topic within Economics and Econometrics. Science Explorer counts 30k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the economic analysis of law and legal systems, focusing on topics such as public enforcement, contracts, litigation, regulation, transaction cost theory, property rights, judicial efficiency, plea bargaining, liability, and norms. The research delves into the intersection of economic principles with legal frameworks and their impact on societal behavior and outcomes.

  • Enforcement
  • Contracts
  • Litigation
  • Regulation
  • Transaction Cost Theory
  • Property Rights
  • Judicial Efficiency
  • Plea Bargaining
  • Liability
  • Norms
Research works
30k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-12%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
41% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems

Which countries lead Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems research?

By volume, the United States and Brazil publish the most (1.1k and 378 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.1k works
  2. 2 Brazil 378 works
  3. 3 China 260 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 242 works
  5. 5 Germany 132 works
  6. 6 France 125 works
  7. 7 India 117 works
  8. 8 Italy 108 works
  9. 9 Russia 99 works
  10. 10 Australia 97 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 40.7%Brazil: 14.4%China: 9.9%United Kingdom: 9.2%6 others listed: 25.8%41%largest
United States1,068 · 40.7%Brazil378 · 14.4%China260 · 9.9%United Kingdom242 · 9.2%6 others listed677 · 25.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems research, followed by University of Oxford and Cornell University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 35 works
  2. 2 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 25 works
  3. 3 Cornell UniversityUnited States 25 works
  4. 4 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 23 works
  5. 5 George Mason UniversityUnited States 22 works
  6. 6 University of MichiganUnited States 18 works
  7. 7 University of California, BerkeleyUnited States 18 works
  8. 8 University of TorontoCanada 17 works
  9. 9 Stanford UniversityUnited States 17 works
  10. 10 Universidade do Estado do Rio de JaneiroBrazil 16 works

Who are the leading researchers in Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems include Daniel J. Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Ted R. Miller.

  1. 1 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
  2. 2 Amos Tversky United States 327k citations
  3. 3 Ted R. Miller United States 279k citations
  4. 4 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
  5. 5 Eugene F. Fama United States 262k citations
  6. 6 Andrei Shleifer United States 234k citations
  7. 7 Michael C. Jensen United States 203k citations
  8. 8 David F. Larcker United States 197k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems?

The most cited paper in Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems is "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration" (Sanford J. Grossman, Oliver Hart, 1986), with 9,650 citations. Next come "The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications" (9,229) and "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures" (7,216).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration Sanford J. Grossman, Oliver Hart · Journal of Political Economy Open access Aug 1986 9,650
2 The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications Thomas J. Donaldson, Lee E. Preston · Academy of Management Review 1995 9,229
3 Performance matched discretionary accrual measures S.P. Kothari, Andrew J. Leone, Charles E. Wasley · Journal of Accounting and Economics 25 Jan 2005 7,216
4 The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead Oliver E. Williamson · Journal of Economic Literature Sep 2000 6,444
5 Multitask Principal–Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design Bengt R. Holmstrom, Paul Milgrom · The Journal of Law Economics and Organization 1991 6,236
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems research done?

The largest centres of Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems research in 2022-now are New York (United States), London (United Kingdom), São Paulo (Brazil) and Beijing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Fairfax.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 New YorkUnited States 67 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 66 works
  3. 3 São PauloBrazil 66 works
  4. 4 BeijingChina 59 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 54 works
  6. 6 Washington D.C.United States 48 works
  7. 7 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 41 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 34 works
  9. 9 ChicagoUnited States 30 works
  10. 10 MelbourneAustralia 29 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. FairfaxUS · 22.0 works14×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems than the world average.

See Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems on the map

Where is the best place to study Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems?

Among universities, judged by research, Cornell University, University of Oxford and University of California, Berkeley score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 14.29%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →London School of Eco…Cornell UniversityUniversity of Califo…University of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Cornell UniversityUnited States 74.814.5%5.5×25 +39.3%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 66.46.1%5.2×25 +3.3%
3University of California, BerkeleyUnited States 61.813.3%5.5×18 +6.1%
4London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom 60.622.5%16.1×13 -19.3%
5Stanford UniversityUnited States 58.413.1%3.3×17 -25.6%
6University of ChicagoUnited States 56.616.0%4.4×13 -40.3%
7University of TorontoCanada 56.216.2%2.5×17 -13.3%
8Harvard UniversityUnited States 56.120.5%0.9×10 +7.0%
9University of Hong KongChina 52.215.4%3.4×11 +7.1%
10George Mason UniversityUnited States 52.05.3%19.9×22 -34.6%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems, country by country

Is Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2019.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.019% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems10.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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