A. Mitchell Polinsky

A. Mitchell Polinsky is an economist whose major area of professional interest is the economic analysis of legal issues. He obtained a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. in 1973, taught in the Department of Economics and the School of Law at Harvard University from 1973 to 1979, and joined the faculties of the School of Law and Department of Economics at Stanford University in 1979. He currently is the Josephine Scott Crocker Professor of Law and Economics in the Law School and a Professor by courtesy in the Economics Department at Stanford. Professor Polinsky also is the Director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the Law School and a Research Associate of the Program in Law and Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Professor Polinsky has been a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a past president of the American Law and Economics Association. He has published over sixty articles, mainly in the application of economics to tort, contract, property, and criminal law, and also on the economics of litigation. His textbook, An Introduction to Law and Economics (Aspen Publishers, Third Edition, 2003), has been used at over fifty law schools and economics departments in the United States and translated into Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. He also is the co-editor of the landmark two-volume Handbook of Law and Economics (Elsevier, 2007).

Mitchell Polinsky has extensive experience as an economic consultant in litigation, focusing on cases on torts, contracts, violations of public law, and legal fees and class actions. In his spare time he enjoys backpacking and flying (he is a private pilot with ratings in powered aircraft and gliders).