Sam Peltzman
Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics Emeritus
Biography
Sam Peltzman is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1965, and he has previously taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also served as senior staff economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago’s School of Business since 1973.
Peltzman’s research has focused on issues related to the interface between the public sector and the private economy. His published work includes numerous articles in academic journals. These encompass many issues in the general areas of the economics of government regulation and industrial organization, including the regulation of banking, automobile safety, pharmaceutical innovation, the growth of government, the political economy of public education, and the economic analysis of voters and legislators. He is the author or an editor of several books, including Political Participation and Government Regulation and The Deregulation of Network Industries: What’s Next.
Peltzman is currently an editor of the Journal of Law and Economics and is the Director Emeritus of the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago. He served as director of the Stigler Center from 1991-2005. He serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals and on the Council of Academic Advisers of the American Enterprise Institute.
Selected Publications
“Offsetting Behavior, Medical Breakthroughs, and Breakdowns,” Journal of Human Capital. Fall, 2011.
“Ronald Coase and the Methodology of Economics,” Journal of Law and Economics. November, 2011.
“Introduction to Stigler’s Theory of Oligopoly,” (with Dennis Carlton), Competition Policy International, v6, n 2, Nov 2010.
“Competition, Regulation and the Role of Local Government Policies in Swedish Markets,” (with Stefan Folster) ch 8 in Richard B. Freeman, Swedenborg, Birgitta and Topel, Robert Reforming the Welfare State:Recovery and Beyond in Sweden. University of Chicago Press, 2010 (in Swedish as “Konkurrenspolitik och kommunalpolitik-effekter pa produktivitet och tillvaxt” in NBER Rapportten. SNS Forlag, Stockholm, 2006).
“Mortality Inequality,” Journal of Economic Perspectives. v23,n4, Fall, 2009.
“W(h)ither Regulation?,” Competition and Regulation in Network Industries v8, n.4, 2007.
“George Joseph Stigler” in Henry W. de Jong and William G. Shepherd (eds.) Pioneers of Industrial Organization: How the Economics of Competition and Monopoly Took Shape, Edward Elgar, 2007. Reprinted as ch.2 in Cohen,Lloyd R. and Wright, Joshua D. (eds.), Pioneers of Law and Economics. Edward Elgar, 2009.
“Aaron Director’s Influence on Antitrust Policy,” Journal of Law and Economics, October, 2005. Also translated as “La Influencia de Aaron Director en la Politico Antimonopolio,” Revista de Economio y Derecho, January, 2006.
“Regulation and the Natural Progress of Opulence” AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, 2005 (The 2004 Distinguished Lecture of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies). (reprinted in Economic Affairs, v30, n2, June 2010).
“School Performance and the Youth Labor Market,” (with Kevin M. Murphy), Journal of Labor Economics,v22, n2, April, 2004.
“Firm Responses to Income Inequality and the Cost of Time,” (with Peter B. Pashigian and Jeanne-mey Sun) Review of Industrial Organization, October, 2003
“The Decline of Antitrust Enforcement,” Review of Industrial Organization, August, 2001
“Miller’s Prescription,” Regulation, Spring, 2001
Deregulation of Network Industries: What’s Next: ed. with Clifford Winston, Brookings, 2000
“Prices Rise Faster than they Fall.” Journal of Political Economy, June, 2000
Political Participation and Government Regulation, University of Chicago Press, 1998.
"Political Economy of Public Education: Non-College Bound Students," Journal of Law & Economics, April, 1996.
The Economics of Organized Crime: ed. with Gianluca Fiorentini, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
"Political Factors in Public School Decline." The American Enterprise, July, 1993.
"George Stigler's Contribution to the Economics of Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, October, 1993.
"The Political Economy of the Decline of American Public Education," Journal of Law & Economics, April, 1993.
Comment on P. Joskow, N. Rose & A. Shepard "Regulatory Constraints on CEO Compensation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Microeconomics, 1993.
“Voters as Fiscal Conservatives" Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1992.
Comments on A. Klevorick "Directions and Trends in Industrial Organization, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Microeconomics, 1991.
"The Handbook of Industrial Organization: A Review Article," Journal of Political Economy, February, 1991.
"How Efficient is the Voting Market?" Journal of Law and Economics, April, 1990.
Comment on M. Salinger, "The Concentration-Margins Relationship Reconsidered," Brooking Papers on Economic Activity: Microeconomics, 1990.
"The Failure of Enforcement," British Journal of Addiction, May, 1989.
The Economic Theory of Regulation After a Decade of Deregulation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Microeconomics, 1989.
Comment on J. Stiglitz, "Technological Change, Sunk Costs and Competition," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1987, n. 3.
Comment on R. Zeckhauser and M. Horn, "The Control and Performance of State-Owned Enterprise" in P. MacAvoy, W. T. Stansbury, G. Yarrow and R. Zeckhauser, Privatization and State-Owned Enterprise, Boston: Kluwer, 1988.
"By Prescription Only," Regulation, 1987, n. 3/4.
Comment on R. B. Freeman, "How do Public Sector Wages and Employment Respond to Economic Conditions" in D. Wise (ed.) Public Sector Payrolls, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
"The Health Effects of Mandatory Prescriptions," Journal of Law and Economics, October, 1987.
"Economic Conditions and Gubernatorial Elections," American Economic Review, May, 1987.
"Regulation and Health: The Case of Mandatory Prescriptions and an Extension," Managerial and Decision Economics, March 1987.
"An Economic Interpretation of the History of Congressional Voting," American Economic Review, September, 1985.
"The Impact of Product Recalls on the Wealth of Sellers," (with Gregg Jarrell)Journal of Political Economy, June, 1985.
Comment on "Bank Market Structure and Competition: A Survey," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, November, 1984.
"Constituent Interest and Congressional Voting," Journal of Law and Economics, April, 1984.
"Peltzman on Regulation and Politics: Reply," Public Choice, September, 1982.
"Passive Restraints: An Economists View" (with Glenn Blomquist) in R. Crandall and L. Lave (eds.) The Scientific Basis of Health and Safety Regulation: Brookings, 1981.
"The Effect of FTC Advertising Regulation," Journal of Law and Economics, December, 1981.
"Current Developments in the Economics of Regulation" in G. Fromm (ed.) Studies in Public Regulation MIT, 1981.
"The Growth of Government," Journal of Law & Economics, October, 1980.
Comment on R. Schotland, "Conflicts of Interest Within the Financial Firm: Regulatory Implications," in F. Edwards (ed.) Issues in Financial Regulation, New York: McGraw Hill, 1979.
Review of D. Schwartzman, Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Journal of Economic Literature,March, 1978.
"The Causes and Consequences of Rising Industrial Concentration: A Reply," Journal of Law and Economics, April, 1979.
Reply to Leon S. Robertson: "A Critical Analysis of Peltzman's 'The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation,'"Journal of Economic Issues, September, 1977.
"The Effects of Regulation and New Drugs," in B. Siegan (ed.), The Interaction of Economics and the Law, Lexington Massachusetts: Lexington Books, 1977.
"The Gains and Losses from Industrial Concentration," Journal of Law and Economics, October, 1977.
"Effects of CAB Regulation," in U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedures, Committee on Judiciary, Oversight of CAB Practices and Procedures, Vol. 3, 1975.
"Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation: Reply," Accident Analysis and Prevention, June, 1976.
"Toward a More General Theory of Regulation," Journal of Law and Economics, August, 1976.
"The Regulation of Automobile Safety," in R. L. Miller and H. Manne (eds.),Auto Safety Regulation: The Cure or the Problem, Glen Ridge, NJ: Horton, 1976.
The Regulation of Automobile Safety, American Enterprise Institute, 1976.
"The 1962 Drug Amendments: Reply," Journal of Political Economy, May/June, 1975.
"The Effects of Auto Safety Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, July/August, 1975.
The Regulation of Pharmaceutical Innovation, American Enterprise Institute, 1975.
"The Diffusion of Pharmaceutical Innovation," in R. B. Helms (ed.) Drug Development and Marketing, American Enterprise Institute, 1975.
"The Benefits and Costs of New Drug Regulation," in Regulating New Drugs, ed. by Richard Landau, University of Chicago, Center for Policy Study, 1973.
"An Evaluation of Consumer Protection Regulation: The 1962 Drug Amendments," Journal of Political Economy, October, 1973. (Reprinted in Benefit-Cost Policy Analysis, 1973. Chicago: Aldine, 1974.)
"The Effect of Government Subsidies-in-Kind on Private Expenditures: The Case of Higher Education,"Journal of Political Economy, January/February, 1973.
"The Costs of Competition: An Appraisal of the Hunt Commission Report," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, November, 1972.
"Local v. National Pollution Control: Note" (with T. N. Tideman), American Economic Review, December, 1972.
"Pricing in Public and Private Enterprises: Electric Utilities in the United States," Journal of Law and Economics, April, 1971.
Review of E. Kohn and C. Carlo, "The Competitive Impact of New Branches," Journal of Business, October, 1970.
Review of D. Alhadeff, Competition and Controls in Commercial Banking, Journal of Business, July, 1970.
"Expenditures and the Compensation of the Money Supply, "Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1970.
"The Structure of the Money-Expenditures Relationship: Reply, American Economic Review, March, 1970.
"Capital Investment in Commercial Banking and Its Relationship to Bank Portfolio Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, January/February, 1970.
"The Banking Structure and the Transmission of Monetary Policy," Journal of Finance, June, 1969.
"The Structure of the Money-Expenditures Relationship," American Economic Review, March, 1969.
Public Policy Toward Mergers, ed. with J. Fred Weston (Pacific Palisades, California, 1969). (Includes) "Issues in Vertical Integration Policy," and "The Relevance of Profit Data for Public Policy."
Review of Gerald C. Fischer, American Banking Structure, Journal of Business, October, 1968.
"Bank Stock Prices and Effects of Regulation of the Banking Structure," Journal of Business, October, 1968.
"Bank Entry Regulation: Its Impact and Purpose," National Banking Review, December, 1965. Reprinted in U.S. Treasury, Studies in Banking Competition and the Banking Structure, Washington, 1966.
"Entry in Commercial Banking," Journal of Law and Economics, October, 1965.
"CAB: Freedom from Competition," New Individualist Review, Spring, 1963.
"The Relative Importance of Unionization and Productivity in Increasing Wages," Labor Law Journal, August, 1961.