Louis Kaplow

Louis Kaplow is Finn M.W. Caspersen and Household International Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, Associate Director of the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He has a Ph.D. in economics and a J.D. from Harvard University.  He has published widely in the fields of taxation and public economics, antitrust, law and economics, and welfare economics and moral philosophy.  He serves on editorial boards of numerous journals and has been an economic and legal consultant to government entities and private parties.

Publications include: (1) in the area of antitrust, Antitrust Analysis (8th ed., Aspen Publishing 2022) (with the late Phillip Areeda, Aaron Edlin, and C. Scott Hemphill), an extensive survey, “Antitrust” (Handbook of Law and Economics 2007) (with Carl Shapiro), Competition Policy and Price Fixing (Princeton University Press 2013), and a series of articles challenging the market definition paradigm, rethinking merger policy, and other subjects; (2) in the area of taxation, The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics (Princeton University Press 2008), a series of related articles presenting a new framework for the analysis of taxation and related subjects in public economics, and a new research survey on optimal income taxation; (3) Fairness versus Welfare (Harvard University Press 2002) (with Steven Shavell), an analytical argument and synthesis at the intersection of economics, moral philosophy, and law; (4) Analytical Methods for Lawyers (3rd ed., Foundation Press 2017) (with Howell Jackson, Steven Shavell, W. Kip Viscusi, and David Cope), an innovative text creating a foundational course for law students; (5) articles in law and economics, particularly addressing the structure of legal rules and the operation of the legal system.