Faculty Podcast

Patents encourage innovation by granting inventors exclusive rights to sell their inventions. The resulting monopoly profits are a reward for innovation. It is commonly thought, however, that these monopoly profits price some consumers of inventions out of the market. This loss of consumption is an “efficiency” cost of patents.

The 2011 Coase Lecture in Law and Economics was presented by Thomas J. Miles , Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School, on January 25, 2011.

This panel was part of the conference Democracy and Gender Equality in the Muslim World, organized by Martha Nussbaum and Madhavi Sunder on May 8, 2009. Speakers included:

Institutional investors, because of their relatively larger ownership stakes, have more incentive than retail investors to monitor the companies in which they invest, particularly if it is costly to exit.

The spectacular rise and fall of the housing market over the past decade has shaken the foundations of virtually every aspect of our economy.

This panel was recorded on December 5, 2009 as part of the conference "Markets, Firms and Property Rights: A Celebration of the Research of Ronald Coase." The conference brought together a group of scholars to honor the life and research of Ronald Coase. 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Coase’s seminal paper on the Federal Communications Commission.

Harvey Levin, '75, is the Executive Producer of TMZ.com and TMZ TV. He also is a Host of The People's Court and was Creator and Executive Producer of Celebrity Justice. Mr. Levin has taught at the University of Miami School of Law, Whittier College School of Law, and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. This talk was recorded on October 18, 2010.

Reasonably secure property rights are widely understood as important for economic growth, though it is also understood that interest groups and politicians can benefit from particular configurations of rights. What might change in a world where intellectual property dominates? How should we expect innovators to be motivated in the next century?

This talk was delivered On October 4, 2010, as part of the Law School's annual First Mondays lecture series for alumni. Geof Stone is Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and a 1971 graduate of the Law School.

Jonathan Masur is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded June 19, 2010 as part of the Licensing of Intellectual Property Conference sponosred by the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics.