Mitch Polinsky is a renowned economist with nearly forty years of experience in applying economic theory and analysis to class action, liability, and damages issues. He is one of the top ten most widely cited scholars in law and economics.
Professor Polinsky testifies in commercial litigation matters, including product liability, environmental liability, punitive damages, fee awards, and contract interpretation. He has consulted on numerous high-profile cases involving oil spills, defective products, consumer fraud, and class action fee awards.
Professor Polinsky is the founding director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at Stanford Law School. He is a previous president of the American Law and Economics Association and a past Guggenheim Fellow. Among his other professional appointments, Professor Polinsky serves as a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and was previously a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, also at Stanford University. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Professor Polinsky’s textbook, An Introduction to Law and Economics, has been in print since 1983 and is currently in its fifth edition. He is the co-editor (with Steven Shavell) of the Handbook of Law and Economics, Volumes 1–2. He serves on the editorial boards of several professional journals, and has published extensively about the application of economic analysis to legal issues, including property, contract law, liability, and punitive damages.
