World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Journal of Law and Economics
H-index 8

Journal of Law and Economics

0022-2186

Published by: The University of Chicago Press

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jle/current

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Law 65 4 5 3
Economics and Finance 361 23 23 6

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 32
Documents by Best Scientists*: 38
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 1
SCIMAGO H-index: 95
SCIMAGO SJR: 1.839
Impact Factor: 1.5

Overview

Top Research Topics at The Journal of Law and Economics?

Microeconomics, Law and economics, Law, Industrial organization and Competition (economics) are the subjects of interest in The Journal of Law and Economics. The Microeconomics study tackling the subject of Monopoly is the focus of it.

  • Microeconomics (11.59%)
  • Law and economics (10.42%)
  • Law (9.99%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • SEPARATION OF OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL (12620 citations)
  • Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations (7178 citations)
  • Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process (4672 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at The Journal of Law and Economics:

The published papers primarily focus on research topics in Microeconomics, Government, Industrial organization, Public economics and Competition (economics). The published articles aim to address concerns in Microeconomics, specifically in the areas of Property rights, Incentive and Monopoly. The most cited publications address concerns in Property rights which are intertwined with other disciplines, such as Land law and Law and economics.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Law
  • World War II
  • China

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The Journal of Law and Economics primarily focuses on research topics in Accounting, Law, Supreme court, Shareholder and Criminology. Accounting research featured in it incorporates concerns from various other topics such as Survey data collection, Labour law, Set (psychology), Transparency (behavior) and Financial incentives. The studies on Law discussed can also contribute to research in the domains of Mental health and Public health.

The journal explores topics in Supreme court which can be helpful for research in disciplines like Enterprise value, Corporate governance, State (polity) and Law and economics. The journal explores issues in Shareholder which can be linked to other research areas like Action (philosophy), Proxy (statistics), Commission, Initial public offering and Block (telecommunications). Criminal history is part of Criminology studies tackled in the journal.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Noncompete Agreements in the US Labor Force (7 citations)
  • China’s Anticorruption Campaign and Entrepreneurship (3 citations)
  • Do Legal Origins Predict Legal Substance (2 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in The Journal of Law and Economics (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Ronald H. Coase (18 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Sam Peltzman (15 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Richard A. Posner (14 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Harold Demsetz (14 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • George J. Stigler (14 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in The Journal of Law and Economics (based on the number of publications) are:

  • University of Chicago (21 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Harvard University (19 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (12 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Yale University (7 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • University of Texas at Austin (7 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 93.75% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 0.00% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 0.00% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 0.00% of all publications and 100.00% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • China’s Anticorruption Campaign and Entrepreneurship

    Dongmin Kong;Ni Qin

    (2021)
    89 Citations
  • Financial Reporting Frequency and Corporate Innovation

    Renhui Fu;Arthur Kraft;Xuan Tian;Huai Zhang

    (2020)
    58 Citations
  • Do Legal Origins Predict Legal Substance

    Anu Bradford;Yun-chien Chang;Adam S. Chilton;Nuno Garoupa

    (2021)
    29 Citations
  • Can Shareholder Proposals Hurt Shareholders? Evidence from Securities and Exchange Commission No-Action-Letter Decisions

    John G. Matsusaka;Oguzhan Ozbas;Irene Yi

    (2021)
    22 Citations
  • Do Public-Private-Partnership-Enabling Laws Increase Private Investment in Transportation Infrastructure?

    Daniel Albalate;Germà Bel;R. Richard Geddes

    (2020)
    16 Citations

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Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal