An Introduction to Law and Economics, Second Edition

This book is concise yet thorough giving you enough Law and Econ to do well in your first year courses without overwhelming you in minutia. The examples build on each other and Polinsky does a nice job of tying things together at the end of each chapter.

I noted some time ago, in a review of Thomas Miceli's _Economics of the Law_, that this work is in some ways "orthogonal" to Miceli's. For one thing, Polinsky gives a fuller discussion of the Coase Theorem; for another, Polinsky at least raises the question whether there is some sort of tradeoff between "efficiency" and "equity." (The reader should be warned that neither of these terms means to an economist quite what it means to anyone else; "equity" in particular, as Polinsky himself is careful to explain, does not mean here what it means to a moral philosopher or a legal theorist.)As an introductory text, it's a good one; Polinsky tends to organize his presentation around well-chosen examples, and his discussion is usually pretty clear and accessible. Moreover, in apparent contrast to Miceli, he doesn't invoke much mathematics even of an elementary sort.But that mathematics is clearly lurking just beneath the surface of the words, and I caution the reader that Polinsky will be much easier to read if you've got some math background. (I don't mean graduate-level stuff; high-school algebra will likely be enough, and a little calculus will probably help.) This is a matter more of style than of substance; readers accustomed to dealing with mathematical texts will just be better equipped to worm their way into Polinsky's clear-but-dense prose and get his point.In coverage, Polinsky's book is pretty close to Cooter and Ulen's, but Cooter and Ulen are probably much more accessible to the typical beginning reader. Despite the absence of explicit mathematics, I'd personally rank Polinsky closer to Miceli in terms of difficulty; if Cooter and Ulen are "elementary" and Miceli is "advanced," then Polinsky is "high intermediate." Your mileage may vary.

I originally bought Polinsky's book for a Law & Economics class in college and I feel this is a very good text on my favorite subject. One of the strongest aspects of this book is the writing is very accessible. Unlike some of his peers, I feel he writes not to impress or to complicate the subject with difficult machinations. Instead, his writing is directed at teaching you the concepts directly and forthrightly. You do not need to bring your economics decoder ring or your Black's Law dictionary to access the concepts or theories. The one weakness, and it isn't to most people, is that I would have loved to seen more visuals in the book. I am a visual learner and economics so easily lends itself to charts and visuals that I would have loved to see a bit more. Yet, I think Polinsky's writing more than makes up for any criticism such as mine. In fact, don't think of as a criticism, but think of it as a suggestion for his next edition. Another thing I also like about the book is its price. While I would favor Cooter & Ulen's book on Law & Economics if I was going to use any text in the universe for an introduction to this topic, this book is almost as effective and significantly cheaper. Therefore, if you are Prof considering a book list, remember that college kids have to find the money somewhere. If you are a normal reader, this is a good place to start for the buck.