Prof. Ariell Reshef

Legislation, Regulation and Litigation

In this CESifo Working Paper (11661), Ariell Reshef and Cailin Slattery examine why the employment share of legal services as well as the relative wage of lawyers and law firm partners more than doubled during 1970–1990, in contrast to preceding and subsequent decades. The researchers argue that this demand shift was driven by important legislative and regulatory events, starting in the mid-1960s and lasting throughout the 1980s. These changes increased the scope of the law and uncertainty over legal outcomes. Consistent with this, they find that employment and compensation of lawyers are tightly correlated with federal regulation, fee-shifting statues and civil litigation, over a period of 100 years.

Mr. Reshef’s research interests focus on income distribution – in particular, the relationship of labor markets with global trade, technological change, regulation, and with the long run evolution of the financial sector. His work lies at the intersection of international trade, labor economics, and macroeconomics, and it studies changes in human capital, skills, and wages.

Ariell Reshef is a CNRS Researcher (Directeur de Recherche) at the Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and is an Associate Member of the Paris School of Economics. Before moving to Paris, he was an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the University of Virginia. He holds BA degree in Economics and Management (2000) and an MA degree in Economics from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD in Economics from New York University. During his PhD studies, he worked as a part time Consultant for the World Bank Institute in Washington, DC. He is a CESifo Research Network Fellow.