Shavell receives Coase medal from American Law and Economics Association

Harvard Law School Professor Steven Shavell received the 2014 Ronald H. Coase Medal from the American Law and Economics Association at its annual meeting May 9. Shavell is the Samuel R. Rosenthal Professor of Law and Economics and director of the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics and Business at Harvard Law School.

The Coase medal, established by the American Law and Economics Association in 2010, is awarded in recognition of major contributions to the field of law and economics. The bi-annual award is named in honor of Ronald Coase, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1991. The award was given to Judge Richard A. Posner in 2010 and to Judge Guido Calabresi in 2012, founders of the field. Recipients’ lectures are published in the American Law and Economics Review.

Posner presented the medal to Shavell at the awards luncheon at the University of Chicago School of Law, stating that he is widely regarded as the “preeminent figure” among economists who specialize in economic analysis of law.

Upon learning that Shavell would receive the award, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow said, “The peer recognition embodied in the Coase Medal is as good as it comes—and that is why it is so wonderful to see it awarded to Steve Shavell. He’s as good as they come, and his work illuminates field after field of law through thoughtful and rigorous use of economic analysis.”