Avishalom Tor

Professor of Law
Director, Research Program on Law and Market Behavior (ND LAMB)

Office: 3163 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574-631-2537
Fax: 574-631-4197
Email: ator@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Mary Juckett
CV: View
SSRN: View

Professor Avishalom Tor’s behavioral-legal research employs theoretical, empirical, and experimental methods in a broad range of studies that revolve around the three major themes of competition and cooperation among individuals and firms; behavioral policy-making; and the methodology of behavioral law and economics. After receiving his doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2003, Tor was a visiting research professor at George Mason University School of Law (2003) and an adviser and consultant to Commissioner Harbour at the Federal Trade Commission on various matters of antitrust law and economics (2003-2006). Before visiting Notre Dame Law School in 2010 and joining the faculty in 2011, Tor was a senior lecturer and co-director of the Forum on Law and Markets at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law (2004-2010) and a visiting professor at Fordham Law School (2011).

Due to the widespread interest in his behavioral-legal research, Tor is frequently invited as a speaker or visiting professor at universities around the world. In just the last few years he was appointed the Max Schmidheiny Foundation Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship and Risk at the University of St. Gallen (2016), a Global College of Law visiting professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (2017), a visiting professor of law at the University of Lucerne (2017), the inaugural Distinguished Visiting Research Professor at Bucerius Law School (2018), and a global professor of law at the University of Haifa (2015-2020). Most recently, Tor was the first legal scholar to be selected as a distinguished fellow of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (2019).

Tor teaches in the areas of antitrust, corporate law, law and economics, and behavioral law and economics. In addition to basic courses in these areas, he has taught various advanced courses and seminars, such as “Antitrust, Technology, and Intellectual Property,” “Corporate Governance: Economic Analysis,” and “Markets, Regulation, and Rationality.” His interdisciplinary work has been published in legal, psychological, decision making, and public policy journals, such as the Michigan Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Texas Law Review, Antitrust Law Journal, Psychological Science, Perspective on Psychological Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Behavioural Public Policy, and many others.

Tor’s research has won multiple grants and awards, both domestically and abroad, and received extensive coverage from international media outlets, including the Economist, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, U.S. News and World Report, and many others. Tor is also the past secretary and management board member of the European Association of Law and Economics (2008-2014) and a board member of a number of international competition law institutes.

Courses Taught

LAW 70101 - Business Associations 
LAW 70117 - Antitrust Law 
LAW 73117 - Antitrust, Technology, and Intellectual Property 
LAW 70902 - Behavioral Analysis of Law 
LAW 73126 - Seminar: Corporate Governance
LAW 73145 - Law & Economics Seminar

Scholarship

Recent Publications

All Publications

Legal Research

Articles and Book Chapters

The Malleability of Inequality Tradeoffs in LAW AND ECONOMICS OF JUSTICE: EFFICIENCY, RECIPROCITY, MERITOCRACY (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., forthcoming 2024), SPRINGER NATURE.

Personalized Behavioral Interventions are Here: Lessons for “Personalized Law,” 26 JERUSALEM REVIEW OF LEGAL STUDIES (forthcoming 2023).

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them: Richard Posner and Behavioral Law and Economics, 31 HISTORY OF ECONOMIC IDEAS (forthcoming 2023) (with Doron Teichman and Eyal Zamir).

Nudge Efficiency in EFFICIENCY AND JUSTICE - LAW AND ECONOMICS IN ALL ITS FACETS, FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOUR OF KLAUS MATHIS (PETER NOBLE ET AL. EDS., forthcoming 2023), Schriften zur Rechtstheorie, Duncker & Humblot.

Digital Nudging: Contours and Challenges in LAW AND ECONOMICS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 3 (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2023).

The Private Costs of Behavioral Interventions, 72 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 1674 (2023).

When Should Governments Invest More in Nudging? Revisiting Benartzi et al. (2017), 18 REVIEW OF LAW AND ECONOMICS 347 (2022) (with Jonathan Klick).

The Law and Economics of Behavioral Regulation, 18 REVIEW OF LAW AND ECONOMICS 223 (2022).

The Target Opportunity Costs of Successful Nudges, in CONSUMER LAW AND ECONOMICS 3 (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2021). SPRINGER NATURE.

Nudges That Should Fail? 4 BEHAVIOURAL PUBLIC POLICY 316 (2020).

Justifying Competition Law in the Face of Consumers’ Bounded Rationality, in NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPETITION LAW AND ECONOMICS 3 (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2019). SPRINGER NATURE.

Boundedly Rational Entrepreneurs and Antitrust, 61 ANTITRUST BULLETIN 520 (2016).

The Critical and Problematic Role of Bounded Rationality in Nudging, in NUDGING—POSSIBILITIES, LIMITATIONS AND APPLICATIONS IN EUROPEAN LAW AND ECONOMICS 3 (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2016).

The Next Generation of Behavioural Law and Economics in EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVES ON BEHAVIOURAL LAW AND ECONOMICS(Klaus Mathis ed., 2015).

Understanding Behavioral Antitrust, 92 TEXAS LAW REVIEW 573 (2014).

The Market, The Firm, and Behavioral Antitrust in THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS AND THE LAW 539 (DORON TEICHMAN & EYAL ZAMIR EDS. 2014).

Some Challenges Facing a Behaviorally-Informed Approach to the Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices in UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES: THE LONG ROAD TO HARMONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT 9 (Tihamer Toth ed. 2013).

The Innocence Effect, 62 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 343 (2012) (with Oren Gazal-Ayal).

Behavioral Antitrust: A New Approach to the Rule of Reason after_ Leegin, 2011 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LAW REVIEW 805 (2011) (with William Rinner).

Foreward: Advances in the Behavioral Analysis of Law: Markets, Institutions, and Contracts, 74 LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS i (2011) (symposium introduction).

Whether and When to Debias through Law, 12 LAW AND BUSINESS 41 (2010) [In Hebrew].

Unilateral, Anticompetitive Acquisitions of Dominance or Monopoly Power, 76 ANTITRUST LAW JOURNAL 847 (2010).

Introduction: Expansion and Contraction in Monopolization Law, 76 ANTITRUST LAW JOURNAL 653 (2010) (with Michal S. Gal & Spencer Weber Waller).

Fairness and the Willingness to Accept Plea Bargain Offers, 7 JOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES 97 (2010) (with Oren Gazal-Ayal & Stephen M. Garcia).

The Impact of Innocence on Plea Bargaining: Empirical Findings, Psychological Insights, and Normative Implications, 39 MISHPATIM: THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 115 (2009) (with Oren Gazal-Ayal) [In Hebrew].

The Methodology of the Behavioral Analysis of Law, 4 HAIFA LAW REVIEW 237 (2008).

Comment: On Experimental Law and Economics and Default Breach Remedies, 163 JOURNAL OF INSTITUTIONAL AND THEORETICAL ECONOMICS 26 (2007).

Overcoming Impediments to Information Sharing, 55 ALABAMA LAW REVIEW 231 (2004) (with Amitai Aviram).

Illustrating a Behaviorally-Informed Approach to Antitrust Law: Section 2 Predation and Beyond, 18 ANTITRUST 52 (2003).

Incentives to Create under a “Lifetime-Plus-Years” Copyright Duration: Lessons from a Behavioral Economic Analysis for_ Eldred v. Ashcroft, in Symposium: Eldred v. Ashcroft: Intellectual Property, Congressional Power, and the Constitution, 36 LOYOLA OF LOS ANGELES LAW REVIEW 437 (2002) (with Dotan Oliar).

The Fable of Entry: Bounded Rationality, Market Discipline, and Legal Policy, 101 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 482 (2002).

Edited Volumes

LAW AND ECONOMICS OF JUSTICE: EFFICIENCY, RECIPROCITY, MERITOCRACY (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., forthcoming 2024), SPRINGER NATURE.

LAW AND ECONOMICS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2023), SPRINGER NATURE.

LAW AND ECONOMICS OF THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2022), SPRINGER NATURE.

LAW AND ECONOMICS OF REGULATION (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2021), SPRINGER NATURE.

CONSUMER LAW AND ECONOMICS (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2021), SPRINGER NATURE.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPETITION LAW AND ECONOMICS (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2019), SPRINGER NATURE.

NUDGING—POSSIBILITIES, LIMITATIONS AND APPLICATIONS IN EUROPEAN LAW AND ECONOMICS (KLAUS MATHIS & AVISHALOM TOR EDS., 2016), SPRINGER NATURE.

LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS, Special Issue: Advances in the Behavioral Analysis of Law: Markets, Institutions, and Contracts, Volume 74:2, 2011.

ANTITRUST LAW JOURNAL, Symposium: Issues at the Forefront of Monopolization and Abuse of Dominance, Volume 76:3, 2010 (with M. Gal and S. Waller).

Behavioral Research

OXFORD HANDBOOK ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COMPETITION (STEPHEN M. GARCIA, AVISHALOM TOR & ANDREW S. ELLIOTT EDS., forthcoming 2024), OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Social Comparison and Competition: General Frameworks, Focused Models, and Emerging Phenomena in OXFORD HANDBOOK ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COMPETITION (STEPHEN M. GARCIA, AVISHALOM TOR & ANDREW S. ELLIOTT EDS., forthcoming 2024), OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS (with Stephen M. Garcia).

What is the Psychology of Competition? in OXFORD HANDBOOK ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COMPETITION (STEPHEN M. GARCIA, AVISHALOM TOR & ANDREW S.ELLIOTT EDS., forthcoming 2024), OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS (with Stephen M. Garcia and Andrew S. Elliott).

The Neuroscience of Social Comparison and Competition, 23 COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE (2023) (with Stephen M. Garcia).

Social Comparison Before, During, and After the Competition in SOCIAL COMPARISON, JUDGMENT AND BEHAVIOR (J. SULS, R. COLLINS, & L. WHEELER EDS., 2020) 105 (with Stephen M. Garcia & Zachary A. Reese).

Gender and Competitive Preferences: The Role of Competition Size, 101 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 1122 (2016) (with Kathrin J. Hanek & Stephen M. Garcia).

The Psychology of Competition: A Social Comparison Perspective, 8 PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 634 (2013) (with Stephen M. Garcia & Tyrone M. Schiff).

The N-Effect: Beyond Winning Probabilities, 21 PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 748 (2010) (with Stephen M. Garcia).

The Price of Equality: Suboptimal Resource Allocations across Social Categories, 20 BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLY 75 (2010) (with Stephen M. Garcia, Max H. Bazerman, Shirli Kopelman, and Dale T. Miller).

The N-Effect: More Competitors, Less Competition,: 20 PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 871 (2009) (with Stephen M. Garcia).

Rankings, Standards, and Competition: Task vs. Scale Comparisons, 102 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND HUMAN DECISION PROCESSES 95 (2007) (with Stephen M. Garcia).

Ranks and Rivals: A Theory of Competition, 32 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 970 (2006) (with Stephen M. Garcia & Richard Gonzalez).

Profit Maximization versus Disadvantageous Inequality in Choice Behavior: The Impact of Self Categorization, 18 JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 187 (2005) (with Stephen M. Garcia, Max Bazerman & Dale T. Miller).

Focusing Failures in Competitive Environments: Explaining Decision Errors in the Monty Hall Game, the Acquiring a Company Problem, and Multi-Party Ultimatums, 16 JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 353 (2003) (with Max H. Bazerman).

Professional Articles

Digital Nudging: Potential and Pitfalls, TECHREG CHRONICLE (October 2022).

Should Antitrust Survive Behavioral Economics? CPI ANTITRUST CHRONICLE 1 (January 2019).

On the Behavioral Analysis of Law, UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA MAGAZINE 26 (Fall 2005) [In Hebrew].

A Behavioral Approach to Antitrust Law and Economics, 14 CONSUMER POLICY REVIEW 2 (2004).

Areas of Expertise

• Antitrust
• Corporate Governance
• Law & Economics
• Behavioral Law and Economics
• Behavioral Public Policy
• Behavioral Decision Research