Subject: More Ayres Spam

From: Ian Ayres [mailto:Ian.Ayres@yale.edu]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 6:02 PM
To: 'ian.ayres@yale.edu'
Subject: More Ayres Spam

Hi gang,

I’ve been working away on a new book project – which, God willing, will be available at bookstores near you on August 28, 2007. The book tells how empirical methods are leaking out of the academy and impacting real world decisions in business, education, medicine, government and many others arenas. (Moneyball was just the tip of the iceberg). True to my thesis, I even used a randomized internet test to help choose the title – which will be:

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart (forthcoming Bantam 2007). Believe it or not you can already pre-order a copy on Amazon

Popular Press:

A Way to Stop Pretexting, Public Radio Commentary for Marketplace (Sept. 11, 2006) (Real Audio) Just after the HP scandal broke, I suggested this simple palliative. Firms should send you an email when ever someone claiming to be you asks for information. Surprisingly this doesn’t happen when someone claiming to be you tries to set up an account at Macy’s and Macy’s checks your credit report. The credit reporting agencies should tell you when someone claiming to be you applies for a new line of credit.

Since I last spammed you, I’ve published 3 Why Not? columns in Forbes with Barry Nalebuff:

For the Love of the Game, Forbes 54 (March 12, 2007) challenges you to take maybe the simplest test ever devised. Using the decoding key at the bottom of this box, can you figure out what the appropriate letter answer is for the four questions (hint: the answer to 1 is A).

It turns out that your ability to answer these question predicts your future income.

Environmental Atonement, Forbes 87 (Dec. 25, 2006)

Here is an example of what Carol Rose calls “walking around” scholarship. It started when a tissue fell out of my pocket at Sleeping Giant park.

Skin in the Game 156 (Nov. 13, 2006). Here is a column that is going to give rise to a real company. Dean Karlan and I are going to start a “Commitment Store” this year. And like the hair club for men, I’m not just a founder, I’m a member. I have put $26,000 at risk this year to safely lose and then maintain a healthy weight (I started at 205 and now weigh 179 – my weight must remain below 185 to avoid forfeiting some of my money to charity). We’re probably going to start by offering our services for free – so feel free to drop me a line if you want help losing weight or quitting smoking.

Scholarly Articles

The Secret Refund Booth, 73 University of Chicago Law Review 1107 (2006) (with Bruce Ackerman). Bruce and I talk about a new kind of campaign finance mechanism that is simpler (and much closer to current regime) than our “Voting With Dollars” proposal.

Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask: Narrow Tailoring After Grutter and Gratz, 85 Texas Law Review 517 (2006) (with Sydney Foster). Sydney and I criticize the Supreme Court’s shift away from a requirement that affirmative action use the minimum racial preference necessary. The empirical surprise is our finding that the Michigan’s law school program used larger racial preferences than the undergraduate program.

New Rules for Promissory Fraud, 48 Arizona Law Review 957 (2006) (with Gregory Klass). Greg and I profer a “pre-statement” of what promissory fraud rules should become.

The Hollow Promise: Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Policies, 24 Association of Corporate Counsel Docket 48 (Oct. 2006) (with Richard F. Ober, Jr.). Richard and I argue that corporations might want to adopt the “Fair Employment Mark” as a way to better manage litigation risk. A policy that is found to be binding can expose a corporation to open ended liability (for example for disparate impacts) whereas contractually opting for ENDA puts the employer in the drivers’ seat as to what potential liability it is willing to take on or not.

Promises, not policies, Yale Alumni Magazine 32 (Sept./Oct. 2006). It seems I will never stop writing about the “Fair Employment Mark”.

By the way, next Sunday’s issue of Parade Magazine (included as supplement in many Sunday newspapers) is scheduled to have an article by Barry and me on Why Not ideas to improve the world.

Hope your spring breaks are restorative.

Ian Ayres

William K. Townsend Professor

Yale Law School

PO Box 208215

New Haven, CT 06520

203.432.7101 (o), 203.432.4769 (f), 203.624.5654 (h), 203.415.5587 (c)

ian.ayres@yale.edu