Law and Economics student Samuel M. Miller (J.D., Harvard, 2007) has been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. His dissertation is titled “Economic and Empirical Analysis of Contractual Dispute Resolution.” Miller’s committee chair is Professor Paige Marta Skiba. Professors Andrew F. Daughety, Erin O’Hara O’Connor, and Edward D. Van Wesep comprise the rest of Miller’s dissertation committee.
Summary of the dissertation topic:
This dissertation employs Python-based programming to retrieve and analyze a sample of approximately 500,000 material contracts that companies have filed with the SEC, focusing in particular on the dispute resolution mechanisms specified in these contracts. In the first chapter, I examine the relationship between how contracts are drafted and the dispute resolution mechanisms they specify, using the enactment of IRC Section 409A (governing the tax treatment of deferred compensation) as an exogenous source of additional detail in executive employment agreements. In the second chapter, I consider the effectiveness of two state-level efforts to compete for dispute resolution business, examining: (i) whether states’ establishment of specialized “business courts” may have prompted parties to select these courts in lieu of arbitration, and (ii) whether states’ adoption of the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act may have prompted parties to select arbitration in lieu of litigation. Finally, in the third chapter, I consider whether the Ninth Circuit’s anomalous refusal to enforce arbitration agreements in the employment context may have inadvertently impeded efficient contracting between companies and their higher-level executives.
