Events

“The Role of Information in Supporting Legal and Economic Institutions”

April 27-29, 2007
Duke University
Durham, NC

The problem of making informed and effective decisions challenges both private and public institutions — ranging from commercial and financial exchanges and corporate boards, to courts and administrative commissions, to legislatures, and executive agencies. Some of these organizations rely on interested parties to disclose information, some rely on private information exchange, and some implement formal processes to research, acquire, and disseminate information. But no matter how information is gathered and disclosed, all of these institutions confront the same challenge of obtaining sufficient amounts of accurate information to function effectively.

This conference examines and evaluates the process of information acquisition, exchange and verification in different economic and legal settings. Conference sessions will focus on the role of information in capital markets and corporate governance, how reputation and commercial exchanges provide information, the unique role of evidence in litigation and the courts and the positive political rationale for the treatment of information in administrative and legislative processes. The conference will conclude with a panel discussion to assess the impact of new developments such as the emergence of markets for information and prediction for improving decision making

Preparation, Papers and Logistics

Our intention is to bring together scholars from economics, political science, and law to discuss important issues of information acquisition and disclosure and their impact on legal and economic institutions. We hope that speakers will feel free to present work in progress with an eye towards generating new insights and identifying promising areas for future research in the broader area of the role of information in law and economics. Invited speakers are requested to submit an unpublished paper or notes in advance to the conference website for circulation among attendees. We have no plans to publish the papers from the conference; however a live transcript of the conference will be distributed for the benefit of interested parties who are unable to attend.

The conference will be held at Duke University Law School in Durham, North Carolina. Speakers will be housed at the Washington Duke Inn next to the campus. All speakers’ expenses to attend the conference will be reimbursed by the Sponsors. A program agenda with further details will be circulated in advance of the conference

Sponsorship:

We are pleased to announce that this is first of the annual Triangle Law and Economics Conferences and is cosponsored by the Univ. of North Carolina School of Law, the Duke University School of Law, and the Fuqua School of Business.

Scott Baker
UNC Law School

Tracy Lewis
Fuqua School of Business

Barak Richman
Duke Law School