William Landes

William M. Landes (born 1939) is an American economist and Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School. A founding figure in the economic analysis of law, Landes is best known for his collaborations with Richard Posner, including two field-defining books: The Economic Structure of Tort Law (1987) and The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (2003). He co-founded the economic consulting firm Lexecon and pioneered the economic analysis of art markets. Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008, he ranks among the most cited legal scholars in American law reviews.^[1]

Landes earned his BA (1960) and PhD (1966) in economics from Columbia University, where he studied under Gary Becker. His dissertation analyzed the economic effects of fair employment laws. He held early faculty positions in economics at Stanford University (1965–66), the University of Chicago (1966–69), Columbia (1969–72), and the City University of New York Graduate Center (1972–74) before joining the Chicago Law School in 1974 as Professor of Economics. He was named Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics in 1992, became Emeritus in 2009, and continued teaching as Senior Lecturer until his retirement in December 2024—marking fifty years of continuous teaching at the Law School.^[2]

Landes’s research applies economic theory to legal institutions, with seminal contributions to torts, intellectual property, judicial behavior, antitrust, and art law. With Posner, he developed efficiency-based models of liability, settlement, and precedent that remain foundational.^[3] Their 2003 book on intellectual property offered the first comprehensive economic framework for copyright, patent, and trademark law.^[4] Landes also pioneered the economic study of art markets, moral rights, and ownership disputes, teaching a popular art law seminar for nearly thirty years.^[5]

In 1977, Landes co-founded Lexecon (now Compass Lexecon) with Richard Posner and Andrew Rosenfield, serving as chairman until retirement.^[6] He was co-editor of the Journal of Law and Economics (1975–91) and Journal of Legal Studies (1991–2000), President of the American Law and Economics Association (1992–93), and a research staff member at the National Bureau of Economic Research (1962–79).^[7]

A visiting distinguished professor at Fordham University School of Law (1996), Landes also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Research Advisory Committee (1986–88) and advised the Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition. He has been affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, Mont Pelerin Society, and editorial boards including the Journal of Cultural Economics and Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

• Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment (ed. with Gary S. Becker, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1974)
• The Economic Structure of Tort Law (with Richard A. Posner, Harvard University Press, 1987)
• The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (with Richard A. Posner, Harvard UP, 2003)
• The Behavior of Federal Judges (with Lee Epstein & Richard A. Posner, Harvard UP, 2013)
• Law and Economics: Theory, Cases, and Other Materials (with Shahar Dillbary, Wolters Kluwer, 2022)

• “The Economics of Fair Employment Laws,” Journal of Political Economy 76(4) (1968)
• “An Economic Analysis of the Courts,” Journal of Law and Economics (1971)
• “The Private Enforcement of Law,” Journal of Legal Studies (1975, with Posner)
• “Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis,” Journal of Law and Economics (1976, with Posner)
• “Adjudication as a Private Good,” Journal of Legal Studies (1979, with Posner)
• “Market Power in Antitrust Cases,” Harvard Law Review (1981, with Posner)
• “An Economic Theory of Intentional Torts,” International Review of Law and Economics (1981, with Posner)
• “Trademark Law: An Economic Perspective,” Journal of Law and Economics (1987, with Posner)
• “An Economic Analysis of Copyright Law,” Journal of Legal Studies (1989, with Posner)
• “The Influence of Economics on Law: A Quantitative Study,” Journal of Law and Economics (1993, with Posner)
• “The Economics of Legal Disputes Over the Ownership of Works of Art and Other Collectibles,” in Essays in the Economics of the Arts (1996, with Posner)
• “What Has the Visual Artists Rights Act Accomplished?” Journal of Cultural Economics (2001)
• “Why (and When) Judges Dissent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis,” Journal of Legal Analysis (2011, with Epstein & Posner)
• “Measuring Coase’s Influence,” Journal of Law and Economics (2011, with Sonia Lahr-Pastor)

Landes has been married to economist Elisabeth M. Landes since 1968; they have three children and seven grandchildren. The couple spends time between Chicago, Michigan, and Scottsdale. Avid art collectors, they focus on mid-20th-century American representational and social realist works by artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alice Neel, Ben Shahn, and Philip Evergood—many of whom Landes knew from his New York childhood.

He serves on the board of the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, where the Elisabeth & William M. Landes Gallery features modern works from the 1880s to the 1960s.^[8] He is also a member of the American Art Committee at the Art Institute of Chicago.

• Faculty Profile – University of Chicago Law School
• IDEAS/RePEc
• Compass Lexecon