2023 Coase Lecture: Adam Chilton, “Law, Economics, and International Development”

Economic growth is perhaps the most successful way to eradicate poverty, improve people’s health, and promote human rights. Finding ways to promote economic development in developing countries is thus one of the world’s most pressing problems. What, if anything, can law and economics teach us about how to approach it? This lecture explained the insights that many of the core tenants of law and economics—like its focus on efficiency, faith in markets, and emphasis on private over public law—offer for thinking about international development.

This lecture was presented on February 1, 2022.