Rankings / Candidate
Richard Posner
University of Chicago Law School · Industrial organization
Photo: chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Currently #11, tier Field, score 14.3, named by 1 source.Score history: 100.0, 25.0, 14.3
The work. Posner's Economic Analysis of Law, from 1973, turned law and economics from a Chicago seminar into a field, arguing common law rules tend toward efficiency. He then applied it from the bench, on the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017.
The case for. He is the most cited legal scholar of his century, with influence that runs through courts as well as journals.
The case against. He is a judge, not an economist, he is in his late eighties, and the committee has never crowned law and economics as such.
The KmikeyM angle. Posner judged legal rules by whether they maximize wealth, and KmikeyM's bylaws get judged the same way, by shareholders watching the price.
What the sources say
- Clarivate alumni (prior years) named Richard Posner: named in 2013: for extending economic theories of regulation (heat 100) Preseason: the Clarivate alumni pool