Economic Regulation of Business

Faye Jones
fejones@law.fsu.edu
2/26/2008
 Research Examples
• Issue #1: Government Regu-
lation of Schooling in the U.S.
and Abroad
• Research Goals:
• If foreign countries have
switched to vouchers as a
means of school regulation, find
economic studies from those
countries
• If not, find other systems that
may have reduced government
control over schools
• Challenges: (1) Requires mainly
economics, not legal, research
(2) Need to develop research
vocabulary – “vouchers” may
not be used internationally.
• Issue #2: Impact of Sports on
Local Communities
• Research Goals:
• Define what impact means –
Economic impact of building
new sports stadiums? More
general economic impact
(benefit or not) to having
major sports franchises in the
community? Focus on the
impact of a particular sport or
compare the impact of sports
on a community (NFL football
vs. pro soccer)?
• Challenges: Similar to Issue
#1
 More Research Examples
• Issue #3: Wine Regulation
Systems in the U.S. and
Abroad
• Research Goals:
• Discover what motivates
regulation of wine distribution
• Find both legal and economic
analysis of wine regulation in
the U.S. and internationally
• Challenges: (1) Large topic:
Wine is a highly competitive
worldwide industry with a
global distribution system
(2) Hot topic: Current
research is vital.
• Issue #4: Ethanol Regulation
(in the context of regulating
gasoline)
• Research Goals:
• Examine both economic and
scientific literature on ethanol
regulation.
• Find relevant sources on
ethanol regulation in the
context of gasoline
regulation.
• Challenges: (1) Hot topic:
Some resources may be
advocacy. Critically evaluate
the resources found. (2)
Current research is vital.
 Research Challenge: Unfamiliarity with
economics research
• Research Strategy in General:
• (1) Search known sources first
• (2) Search for a variety of sources
• Journal articles, news stories, books,
dissertations, newly available unpublished
scholarly papers, blogs, etc.
• (3) Schedule a research consultation with a
librarian
• For help in developing research strategy,
creating research vocabulary, and finding
resources that you may have missed.
 Searching Known Sources (and beyond)
• Strategy:
• 1. Make a quick first pass in familiar research
sources
• 2. Find potentially useful material
• 3. Evaluate relevance, review sources used then
discard material that is not helpful
• Through the process of steps 1-3 develop research
vocabulary
• By discovering the terms used by experts develop your
own expertise
• 4. Keep a research log of where you have searched
and print out successful searches
• 5. Find a “flashlight” to help you look in the dark,
wild places
Searching Strategy: Finding the Flashlights
• (1) Search Law & Economics sources at the
FSU University Library
• You can do this research Off-campus!
• (2) Search using FSU’s Economics on the Web research guide
• (3) Review and compare FSU Law Research Center
Law & Economics links
• (4) Search other databases and gray literature
• (5) Search Google Scholar and Book Search
• (6) Search FSU Libraries Online Catalog for print and e-books
• (7) Look for influential or scholarly blogs
• (8) For the broadest web search use a variety of search engines --
They don’t all cover the same web pages!
• Altavista www.altavista.com
• alltheweb www.alltheweb.com
• Yahoo! http://search.yahoo.com
• Yahoo! News! http://news.yahoo.com
 Articles

• JSTOR
• Good starting points: Journal of Economic
Literature and Journal of Economic
Perspectives
• Available only up to 2005 on JSTOR
• Sciencedirect
• Includes journals not in JSTOR; often up to
the current issue
• Also books and books in series
Research Tip: Check Coverage in the
Databases
Compare Lexis coverage with JSTOR
Lexis search in combined past 2 years news
and magazine articles:
atleast25(wine) /5 regulat! /5 economic 
• American Journal of Agricultural Economics 2005
• JSTOR
• Would not find this article. Why?
• Alphabetical Browse by Journal Title
Lexis News & Magazine Story Search
 News Articles
• Tip: Check coverage!
• Lexis – Superior to WL for news and magazine stories
• WSJ: Full-text from January 02, 1984 through current. Same
day; Stories are available by 4 am est.
• Specific industry magazines covered: Ethanol & Biodiesel
News
• WL:
• All News contains newspapers, magazines, journals,
newsletters, government press releases, transcripts of
television and radio shows and congressional testimony. --
Coverage varies by publication.
• WSJ Abstracts only
• Newspaper and magazine web sites (NYT, Washington
Post (policy), LA Times (sports, entertainment),
The Economist, BBC News)
Westlaw News Sources
 Working papers & More
• Research Papers in Economics: (also
has links to published journal articles)
• Social Science Research Network
• National Bureau of Economic Research
• Resources for Economists
• Internet Resources for Economists

18
 Blogs
• Check the credential of the blogger
• Look for blogs by scholars
• For empirical research, see Legal Scholarship Blog
• Use Google to search blogs
• The Sports Economist.com
• About Us
• Essays
• Sign up for RSS feeds to catch news and
updates
 Books
• Handbooks in Economics
• Most are available at the FSU University Library.
• General Resources for Writing in Economics
• Thomas L. Wyrick, The economist's handbook : a research
and writing guide, STROZIER LIBRARY Reference,
HB74.5 .W97 1994 -- In-Library Use Only
• William Thomson, A Guide for the Young Economist, 2001.
(Ebook -- most helpful for writing tips.)
• On Order:
• Steven A. Greenlaw Doing Economics: A Guide to
Understanding and Carrying Out Economic Research. 2006.
• Deirdre N. McCloskey Economical Writing. 2d. Ed., 1999.
• Robert H. Neugeboren The Student’s Guide to Writing
Economics. 2005.
• Online Catalog