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Topic · Economics and Econometrics

Legal and Constitutional Studies

Legal and Constitutional Studies is a research topic within Economics and Econometrics. Science Explorer counts 15k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to the intersection of law and economics, with a focus on public policy and regulation. It includes discussions on cost-benefit analysis, judicial system, property rights, constitutional law, taxation, antitrust, and intellectual property.

  • Law and Economics
  • Public Policy
  • Regulation
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • Judicial System
  • Property Rights
  • Constitutional Law
  • Taxation
  • Antitrust
  • Intellectual Property
Research works
15k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-42%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
71% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Legal and Constitutional Studies

Which countries lead Legal and Constitutional Studies research?

By volume, the United States and Brazil publish the most (704 and 75 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 704 works
  2. 2 Brazil 75 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 50 works
  4. 4 Germany 34 works
  5. 5 Canada 27 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 24 works
  7. 7 China 23 works
  8. 8 Australia 19 works
  9. 9 India 19 works
  10. 10 Russia 18 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: 70.9%Brazil: 7.5%United Kingdom: 5.1%Germany: 3.4%6 others listed: 13.1%71%largest
United States704 · 70.9%Brazil75 · 7.5%United Kingdom50 · 5.1%Germany34 · 3.4%6 others listed130 · 13.1%

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

Which institutions lead Legal and Constitutional Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Michigan publishes the most Legal and Constitutional Studies research, followed by University of Chicago and George Mason University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of MichiganUnited States 17 works
  2. 2 University of ChicagoUnited States 15 works
  3. 3 George Mason UniversityUnited States 14 works
  4. 4 University of HoustonUnited States 12 works
  5. 5 Yale UniversityUnited States 12 works
  6. 6 Georgetown UniversityUnited States 10 works
  7. 7 University of VirginiaUnited States 10 works
  8. 8 Stanford UniversityUnited States 10 works
  9. 9 New York Law SchoolUnited States 9 works
  10. 10 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 9 works

Who are the leading researchers in Legal and Constitutional Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Legal and Constitutional Studies include Daniel J. Kahneman, Andrei Shleifer and Joseph E. Stiglitz.

  1. 1 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
  2. 2 Andrei Shleifer United States 234k citations
  3. 3 Joseph E. Stiglitz United States 167k citations
  4. 4 Элинор Остром United States 149k citations
  5. 5 Gary S. Becker United States 148k citations
  6. 6 Andrew Gelman United States 132k citations
  7. 7 Amartya Kumar Sen United States 117k 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 Legal and Constitutional Studies?

The most cited paper in Legal and Constitutional Studies is "The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy." (James Edward Meade, J. M. Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, 1963), with 3,471 citations. Next come "Incomplete Contracts and Renegotiation" (1,942) and "Auditor independence, ‘low balling’, and disclosure regulation" (1,761).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. James Edward Meade, J. M. Buchanan, Gordon Tullock · The Economic Journal Mar 1963 3,471
2 Incomplete Contracts and Renegotiation Oliver Hart, John Hardman Moore · Econometrica Jul 1988 1,942
3 Auditor independence, ‘low balling’, and disclosure regulation Linda DeAngelo · Journal of Accounting and Economics Aug 1981 1,761
4 Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff Russell Keat · Philosophical Books 1980 1,597
5 Federalism as a Commitment to Preserving Market Incentives Yingyi Qian, Barry R. Weingast · The Journal of Economic Perspectives Open access Nov 1997 1,519
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Legal and Constitutional Studies research done?

The largest centres of Legal and Constitutional Studies research in 2022-now are Washington D.C. (United States), New York (United States), Chicago (United States) and Ann Arbor (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Chicago and Washington D.C..

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 Washington D.C.United States 43 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 42 works
  3. 3 ChicagoUnited States 31 works
  4. 4 Ann ArborUnited States 17 works
  5. 5 BostonUnited States 16 works
  6. 6 HoustonUnited States 16 works
  7. 7 São PauloBrazil 16 works
  8. 8 FairfaxUnited States 14 works
  9. 9 Los AngelesUnited States 13 works
  10. 10 LondonUnited Kingdom 13 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ChicagoUS · 31.0 works10×
  2. Washington D.C.US · 43.2 works9.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Legal and Constitutional Studies than the world average.

See Legal and Constitutional Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Legal and Constitutional Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Chicago, University of Houston and University of Michigan score highest, combining 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 10.31%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of HoustonUniversity of ChicagoYale UniversityUniversity of Michigan
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.

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
1University of ChicagoUnited States 77.310.1%17.3×16 -25.7%
2University of HoustonUnited States 56.515.2%34.5×12 +15.8%
3University of MichiganUnited States 41.66.9%10.5×17 -30.6%
4Yale UniversityUnited States 40.47.9%10.3×12 -60.6%
5University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 39.88.9%6.1×9 -2.6%
6Stanford UniversityUnited States 38.510.2%6.1×10 -42.3%
7George Mason UniversityUnited States 37.46.0%43.1×14 -56.3%
8University of VirginiaUnited States 36.014.3%14.9×10 -71.7%
9New York Law SchoolUnited States 31.610.6%403.0×9 -58.4%
10Georgetown UniversityUnited States 30.013.0%21.6×10 -72.6%

Universities only. The score blends 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 Legal and Constitutional Studies, country by country

Is Legal and Constitutional Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 42% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2012.

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 Legal and Constitutional Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0055% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Legal and Constitutional Studies0.0049% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Legal and Constitutional Studies 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%Legal and Constitutional Studies11.4% 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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