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Volume 17 - Issue 4 - Fall 1992

Contents

DEBATE: Do Lawyers Impair Economic Growth?

  • Do Lawyers Impair Economic Growth?

  • Charles R. Epp
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    27 December 2018, pp. 585-623

  • The large U.S. legal profession hurts economic productivity in the United States and our economic competitiveness abroad according to a common claim A number of studies support that claim, but they suffer from serious flaws. I reexamine the hypothesis that large lawyer populations impair economic growth and suggest that it lacks theoretical and empirical support. The hypothesis depends on false assumptions about the organizational capability and interest of the legal profession; the empirical research in sup port of the hypothesis depends on flawed lawyer data, unusual combinations of high lawyer populations and low economic growth in one or two countries, and the unjustified use of lawyer population figures from the 1980s in analyses of economic growth prior to that period. I present the results of research on lawyer populations and economic growth among the US. states and in a sample of countries, correcting for the worst flaws of past research The results do not support the claim that large lawyer populations impair aggregate economic growth The analysis is not intended as the final answer on this important question but rather as an encouragement for a more sophisticated understanding of the role of lawyers in late modern economies.

Do Lawyers Impair Economic Growth?

Commentary

Commentary

Do Lawyers Impair Economic Growth?

Rejoinder

The Supreme Court and Social Change

Review Section Symposium

Review Essay

Review Commentary: The Question That Killed Critical Legal Studies

Review Essay

Review Rejoinder: The Question That Killed Critical Legal Studies

Review Essay

Review Essay

Book Notes

Other

Front matter

  • LSI volume 17 issue 4 Cover and Front matter

  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    27 December 2018, pp. f1-f9
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Back matter

  • LSI volume 17 issue 4 Cover and Back matter

  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    27 December 2018, pp. b1-b8
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