Pomposity v Social Value in Legal (and Antitrust) Scholarship
I just saw this graph on Prof. Einer Elhauge’s LinkedIn account; the original source is Eric Posner’s blog (yes, the son of Richard Posner and a big name in his own right too).
I’d be curious to know about the underlying methodology (economic analysis seems to favor economy-related disciplines). It would seem as if an antitrust legal scholar had asked an economist to come up with a seemingly scientific study corroborating a given thesis. Not that this would ever happen in private practice… 🙂
Chillin'Competition 
Haha, this is fantastic.
Nicolas Petit
9 January 2014 at 4:59 pm
I think the methodology probably involved putting one’s tongue firmly in one’s cheek.
Einer Elhauge
9 January 2014 at 6:22 pm
Absolutely. Would have never thought that anyone would seriously argue that antitrust scholarship has any social value 🙂 As a (geeky) joke it is fantastic. Thanks for the find!!
Alfonso Lamadrid
9 January 2014 at 7:30 pm
Haha. As for IP, given where it appears on this page, it seems to have -500 of pomposity and 150 of social value. How apt! 🙂
Charles M.
9 January 2014 at 6:33 pm
According to his blog his starting assumption is that if legal scholarship has social value, the publication of any major piece of legal scholarship should be visible in stock market returns. That might explain the low social value of the poor constitutional lawyers
Sven
9 January 2014 at 7:44 pm