Most cited papers in Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems
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).
Showing 50 of 99 papers. Every paper with more than 783 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration Sanford J. Grossman, Oliver Hart · Journal of Political Economy | 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 |
| 6 | Detecting Earnings Management. Patricia Dechow, Richard G. Sloan · The Accounting Review | Apr 1995 | 6,070 |
| 7 | A Review of the Earnings Management Literature and Its Implications for Standard Setting Paul M. Healy, James M. Wahlen · Accounting Horizons | Dec 1999 | 4,237 |
| 8 | Regret Theory: An Alternative Theory of Rational Choice Under Uncertainty Graham Loomes, Robert Sugden · The Economic Journal | Dec 1982 | 4,105 |
| 9 | Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment. Amos Tversky, Daniel J. Kahneman · Psychological Review | Oct 1983 | 4,013 |
| 10 | Organizational Justice: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Jerald Greenberg · Journal of Management | Jun 1990 | 3,675 |
| 11 | The Provision of Incentives in Firms Canice J. Prendergast · Journal of Economic Literature | Mar 1999 | 3,459 |
| 12 | The effect of bonus schemes on accounting decisions Paul M. Healy · Journal of Accounting and Economics | Apr 1985 | 3,395 |
| 13 | Formal and Real Authority in Organizations Philippe Aghion, Jean Tirole · Journal of Political Economy | Feb 1997 | 3,161 |
| 14 | Efficient mechanisms for bilateral trading Roger B. Myerson, Mark A. Satterthwaite · Journal of Economic Theory | Apr 1983 | 2,584 |
| 15 | STAKEHOLDER‐AGENCY THEORY Charles W. L. Hill, Thomas M. Jones · Journal of Management Studies | Mar 1992 | 2,497 |
| 16 | Fairness in Simple Bargaining Experiments Robert Stanley Forsythe, Joël L. Horowitz, Nathan Eugene Savin et al. · Games and Economic Behavior | May 1994 | 2,431 |
| 17 | Contingent Valuation: Is Some Number Better than No Number? Peter Diamond, Jerry A. Hausman · The Journal of Economic Perspectives | Nov 1994 | 1,967 |
| 18 | Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral Guido Calabresi, A. Douglas Melamed · Harvard Law Review | Apr 1972 | 1,954 |
| 19 | Incomplete Contracts and Renegotiation Oliver Hart, John Hardman Moore · Econometrica | Jul 1988 | 1,942 |
| 20 | The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research Christian Leuz, Peter D. Wysocki · Journal of Accounting Research | 15 Feb 2016 | 1,881 |
| 21 | THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN THE REVIVAL OF TRADE: THE LAW MERCHANT, PRIVATE JUDGES, AND THE CHAMPAGNE FAIRS Paul Milgrom, Douglass C. North, Barry R. Weingast · Economics and Politics | Mar 1990 | 1,822 |
| 22 | The Proper Scope of Government: Theory and an Application to Prisons Oliver Hart, Andrei Shleifer, Robert W. Vishny · The Quarterly Journal of Economics | Nov 1997 | 1,814 |
| 23 | Rents, Competition, and Corruption Alberto F. Ades, Rafael Di Tella · American Economic Review | Sep 1999 | 1,804 |
| 24 | Auditor independence, ‘low balling’, and disclosure regulation Linda DeAngelo · Journal of Accounting and Economics | Aug 1981 | 1,761 |
| 25 | Preferences, Property Rights, and Anonymity in Bargaining Games Elizabeth N. Hoffman, Kevin McCabe, Keith Shachat et al. · Games and Economic Behavior | Nov 1994 | 1,735 |
| 26 | Self-Enforcing International Environmental Agreements Scott A. Barrett · Oxford Economic Papers | Oct 1994 | 1,716 |
| 27 | THE INTERACTION OF RACE, GENDER, AND AGE IN CRIMINAL SENTENCING: THE PUNISHMENT COST OF BEING YOUNG, BLACK, AND MALE Darrell J. Steffensmeier, Jeffery Todd Ulmer, John H. Kramer · Criminology | Nov 1998 | 1,598 |
| 28 | Federalism as a Commitment to Preserving Market Incentives Yingyi Qian, Barry R. Weingast · The Journal of Economic Perspectives | Nov 1997 | 1,519 |
| 29 | The Role of Big 6 Auditors in the Credible Reporting of Accruals Jere R. Francis, Edward L. Maydew, H. Charles Sparks · Auditing A Journal of Practice & Theory | Sep 1999 | 1,462 |
| 30 | Auction Theory: A Guide to the Literature Paul D. Klemperer · Journal of Economic Surveys | Jul 1999 | 1,420 |
| 31 | The Theory of the Firm as Governance Structure: From Choice to Contract Oliver E. Williamson · The Journal of Economic Perspectives | Aug 2002 | 1,411 |
| 32 | The Law of Group Polarization Cass Robert Sunstein · Journal of Political Philosophy | Jun 2002 | 1,377 |
| 33 | When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks Tim Loughran, Bill McDonald · The Journal of Finance | 6 Jan 2011 | 1,374 |
| 34 | Evidence on the Trade-Off between Real Activities Manipulation and Accrual-Based Earnings Management Amy Y. Zang · The Accounting Review | Nov 2011 | 1,366 |
| 35 | The Selection of Disputes for Litigation George L. Priest, Benjamin Klein · The Journal of Legal Studies | 1984 | 1,356 |
| 36 | Libertarian Paternalism Is Not an Oxymoron Cass Robert Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler · The University of Chicago Law Review | 2003 | 1,332 |
| 37 | The provision of a sanctioning system as a public good. Toshio Yamagishi · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1986 | 1,284 |
| 38 | Courts Simeon Djankov, R. La Porta, Florencio López‐de‐Silanes et al. · The Quarterly Journal of Economics | May 2003 | 1,258 |
| 39 | A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics Christine Jolls, Cass Robert Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler · Stanford Law Review | May 1998 | 1,256 |
| 40 | Incomplete Contracts: Where do We Stand? Jean Tirole · Econometrica | Jul 1999 | 1,236 |
| 41 | Separation of Powers and Political Accountability Tomas Persson, Gérard Roland, Guido Tabellini · The Quarterly Journal of Economics | Nov 1997 | 1,218 |
| 42 | The Boundaries of the Firm Revisited Bengt R. Holmstrom, John Heath Roberts · The Journal of Economic Perspectives | Nov 1998 | 1,211 |
| 43 | The base-rate fallacy in probability judgments Maya Bar‐Hillel · Acta Psychologica | May 1980 | 1,204 |
| 44 | The Economic Theory of Public Enforcement of Law Maria Polinsky, Steven Shavell · Journal of Economic Literature | Mar 2000 | 1,200 |
| 45 | Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999 Andrew D. Martin, Kevin M. Quinn · Political Analysis | 2002 | 1,187 |
| 46 | Social Norms and Social Roles Cass Robert Sunstein · Columbia Law Review | May 1996 | 1,183 |
| 47 | The Unofficial Economy in Transition Simon Johnson, Daniel Kaufmann, Andrei Shleifer et al. · Brookings Papers on Economic Activity | 1997 | 1,181 |
| 48 | Algorithmic Decision Making and the Cost of Fairness Sam Corbett‐Davies, Emma Pierson, Avi Feller et al. | 4 Aug 2017 | 1,155 |
| 49 | Relational Incentive Contracts Jonathan Levin · American Economic Review | May 2003 | 1,152 |
| 50 | The Global Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism David Levi‐Faur · The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | Feb 2005 | 1,150 |
Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.