Kathryn E. Spier
Domenico De Sole Professor of Law
Kathryn E. Spier is the Domenico De Sole Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School and President Emeritus of the American Law and Economics Association. She received her PhD from MIT in 1989, and her BA in mathematics and economics from Yale in 1985. Before joining the Harvard Law School in 2007, she was for 13 years a professor in the Management and Strategy department at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and served as the Richard M. Paget Distinguished Professor. Before that, she served as assistant and associate professor in the Harvard Economics Department. Professor Spier has served as co-editor of the RAND Journal of Economics and associate editor of the American Economic Review, and is a Research Associate in the Law and Economics Group of the National Bureau of Economic Research. She has published extensively in the areas of law and economics and industrial organization. Her areas of interest include the economics of litigation, contracts, tort law, antitrust, and business organization.
Education
- Ph.D. Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989
- B.A. Mathematics and Economics Yale University, 1985
Academic Appointment and Employment History
- Research Associate, Law and Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (2002 - Present)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States - Richard M. Paget Distinguished Professor, Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management (2005 - 2007)
Evanston, Illinois, United States - Professor of Law, Northwestern University (2005 - 2007)
Chicago, Illinois, United States - Associate Professor/Full Professor, Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management (1994 - 2003)
Evanston, Illinois, United States - Faculty Research Fellow, Law and Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (1990 - 2002)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States - Assistant/Associate Professor of Economics, Harvard University (1989 - 1994)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States - Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Chicago GSB (1993 - 1994)
Chicago, Illinois, United States - Olin Fellow, University of Chicago Law School (1993 - 1994)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Board Memberships
- Co Editor, RAND Journal of Economics (2011 - 2019)
United States - Editorial Board, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (1997 - Present)
United States - President, American Law and Economics Association (2015 - 2016)
- Vice President, American Law and Economics Association (2014 - 2015)
- Associate Editor, American Economic Review (2017 - 2023)
Honors and Awards
- Honorary Doctorate (Professional Honors)
BI Norwegian Business School, November 2023 - Garvin Prize in Law & Economics (Awards)
School of Law, Boalt Hall, Berkeley, 2001 - National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship
MIT, 1985-1988 - Laun Honor Award
Yale University; for overall excellence in economics, 1985 - National Science Foundation Award No. SES-1155761 (Awards)
"Contractual Arrangements and Bargaining Institutions in Inter-Firm and Intra-Firm Strategic Environments", 2012 - Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award (Awards)
Northwestern University, Kellogg, 2006 - Searle Fund Grant (Awards)
"Litigation Policy and Tort Reform", 2004 - National Science Foundation Grant, No. SES-9109009 (Awards)
“The Strategic Role of Debt: Can Leverage Influence Bargaining Outcomes?”, 1991 - Deforest Prize
Yale University; for pure mathematics, 1985 - Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award (Awards)
Northwestern University, Kellogg, 2002 - Olin Foundation Graduate Fellowship
MIT, 1988-1989 - Bickerman Memorial Prize
Yale University; best department essay in economics, 1985 - Ellsworth Senior Prize
Yale University, Jonathan Edwards College; best senior essay in the social sciences, 1985 - Stanley Prize
Yale University; for excellence in pure and applied mathematics, 1984 - Phi Beta Kappa
Yale University, 1984
Representative Publications
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Favorite
Kathryn Spier, Litigation, in The Handbook of Law and Economics 249 (A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven M. Shavell eds., 2007). -
Favorite
Bruce L. Hay & Kathryn E. Spier, Manufacturer Liability for Harm Caused by Consumers to Others, 95 Am. Econ. Rev. 1700 (2005). - Xinyu Hua & Kathryn E. Spier, Platform Safety: Strict Liability versus Negligence (HKUST Bus. Sch. Rsch. Paper No. 2023-105, Mar. 31, 2023).
- Claudia M. Landeo & Kathryn E. Spier, Optimal Law Enforcement with Ordered Leniency, 63 J.L. & Econ. 71 (2020).
- Kathryn E. Spier & J.J. Prescott, Contracting on Litigation, 50 RAND J. Econ. 391 (2019).