Guest Blogger: Michael Simkovic
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Standardized test scores and law school rankings (Michael Simkovic)
One area of disagreement among law schools and between U.S. News and some of the law schools boycotting its rankings turns on whether students’ standardized test scores should be included in the rankings, and the extent to which they should be weighted. The case for including standardized test scores, and weighting them heavily, is as…
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“Unemployment” and law school rankings (Michael Simkovic)
One area of disagreement among law schools and between U.S. News and some of the law schools boycotting its rankings turns on whether “unemployment” should be defined according to the standard definition used by the U.S. government, the Department of Labor, the Census Bureau, and the Department of Education. The government defines unemployment narrowly to…
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School-funded jobs, long-term outcomes, and law school rankings (Michael Simkovic)
One area of disagreement among law schools and between U.S. News and some of the law schools boycotting its rankings turns on whether and to what extent school-funded jobs should count as post-graduate employment. The argument in favor of inclusion is as follows: School funded jobs pay students real money. From the perspective of…
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Should student loan balances be included in law school rankings? (Michael Simkovic)
One of the most contentious areas of disagreement between U.S. News and law schools boycotting its rankings turns on whether student loan balances should be included in the rankings. Currently, a higher student loan balance counts against a law school in the rankings. Student loan balances are apparently meant so serve as a crude proxy…
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Who are law school rankings meant to help? (Michael Simkovic)
Approximately 12 law schools, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, have refused to compile data to facilitate the U.S. News rankings. Statements by the deans of the protesting law schools suggest that they hope to pressure U.S. News to modify its ranking system. This raises a fundamental question: What is the purpose of ranking law schools?…
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Bankruptcy Scholar Troy McKenzie to Lead NYU (Michael Simkovic)
Troy McKenzie, a highly regarded bankruptcy and civil procedure scholar, was recently appointed as the new Dean of NYU School of Law. Dean McKenzie will be the second bankruptcy scholar to lead a top-5 law school (Douglas Baird at Chicago was the first). McKenzie is unusual among law school deans because of his undergraduate background…
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McCarthyist accusations deployed against law professor in Confirmation hearing (Michael Simkovic)
Cornell Law School professor (and former Davis Polk financial institutions group lawyer) Saule Omarova, was nominated by President Biden to head the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationally chartered banks. Omarova is a progressive scholar of financial regulation who has written about the possibility of increased public provision of financial services, including…
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Nobel prize in economics awarded for innovation in causal inference from observational data (Michael Simkovic)
Three renowned labor economists, David Card (Berkeley), Joshua Angrist (MIT) and Guido Imbens (Stanford Business School) shared the Nobel prize in economics for their pioneering work using observational (i.e., non-experimental) data for causal inference. This work facilitated empirical analysis of the effects of various legal and public policy changes, which are enacted in the real…
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More highly educated populations are more likely to be vaccinated against COVID (Michael Simkovic)
Economists, sociologists, and public health researchers have long observed that more highly educated groups tend to be healthier and live longer than those that are less educated. Debates emerged about whether increasing levels of education caused improvements in health. Some economists argue that those who know themselves to be healthy at a young age will be more…
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Wall Street Journal law school analysis overlooks increased diversity and lower interest rates (Michael Simkovic)
In my last post, I discussed problems with WSJ coverage of law schools. In particular the WSJ has effectively faulted law schools for broad, national declines in employment that are most likely due to macroeconomic conditions such as the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and its aftermath, to COVID, and to other broad secular trends in…
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Wall Street Journal blames law schools for COVID economy (Michael Simkovic)
In 2010 to 2013, the Wall Street Journal effectively blamed law schools for the economic fallout of the financial crisis and the Great Recession. In particular, the recession caused a large reduction in employment which hit young and inexperienced workers across the economy.
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Books by Nobel prize winners to read (or listen to) this summer
One of the great joys of being a student or academic is the ability to engage in self-directed learning. The freedom this affords can be overwhelming, given the massive volume of books, articles, and other media that could be consumed. This raises the question, what should be read for pleasure first? Recently, I've been reading…
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Ashley Deeks (Virginia) and Francis Shen (Minnesota) win ALI early career Scholars Medal (Michael Simkovic)
The American Law Institute will award its Early Career Scholars Medal to Professors Ashley S. Deeks of the University of Virginia School of Law and Francis X. Shen of the University of Minnesota Law School. The award recognizes outstanding law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements…
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Evidence-driven education policy, money, and influence (Michael Simkovic)
I recently discussed research debunking claims that law school and business school are only worthwhile for those privileged enough to gain admission to elite programs. Press coverage has been curiously oblivious to social science research using high quality data and well-established methods. Why might the press overlook high quality information sources while instead elevating the…
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Non-elite business programs boost earnings more than most assume (Michael Simkovic)
A popular narrative is that business school is not worth the time and money, especially outside of a handful of elite programs. This narrative closely echoes earlier critiques of legal education that have since been thoroughly debunked. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). As was the case with legal education, the…
Don’t click the transcript – it’s a mis-transcription that makes Harvey sound unhinged. The bit of it that’s visible without…