This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. December 2022
  5. Legal Markets

Legal Markets

Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

The existence of an effective legal system is assumed throughout economic analysis, and yet there has been little study of the economics of legal markets themselves. Research to date has focused narrowly on the economics of markets for lawyers. In this review, I distinguish legal markets from the market for lawyers and show how excessive regulation of our legal markets—by lawyers themselves—distorts economic activity and growth. It does so primarily by inhibiting investment in the legal and regulatory technologies needed to respond to the transformation of the economy wrought by globalization, digitization, aspirations for inclusion, and the coming of artificial intelligence.

Citation

Hadfield, Gillian K. 2022. "Legal Markets." Journal of Economic Literature, 60 (4): 1264-1315. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20201330

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • J44 Professional Labor Markets; Occupational Licensing
  • K00 Law and Economics: General
  • K40 Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior: General
  • L84 Personal, Professional, and Business Services