RYAN BUBB
University of Southern California Gould School of Law
699 W Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90089
(213) 821-0513 • rbubb@law.usc.edu
Employment
University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Visiting Professor of Law, 2025–2026; Professor of Law, beginning 2026
New York University School of Law
Robert B. McKay Professor of Law, 2022–present; Professor of Law, 2015–2022; Associate Professor of Law, 2013–2014; Assistant Professor of Law, 2010–2013
Harvard Law School
Austin Wakeman Scott Visiting Professor of Law, Spring 2016
Stanford Law School
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Winter 2015
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
Senior Researcher, 2010
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget
Policy Analyst, 2009–2010
Covington & Burling
Summer Associate, 2004
District of Columbia Public Defender Service
Law Clerk, 2002
Education
Ph.D., Political Economy and Government, Harvard University
J.D., Yale Law School
M.A., Economics, Yale University
B.S., Physics, College of William and Mary
Courses Taught
- Corporations
- Corporate Law and Economics
- Survey of Securities Regulation
- Law and Economics Colloquium: Business Law & Economics
- Economic Analysis of Public Law
- Behavioral Law and Economics
- Lederman Fellows Workshop
Publications and Works in Progress
Corporate Governance
Works in Progress
Corporate Politicization
The Anatomy of M&A Governance
Splitting Caremark's Atom
The Entitlement Structure of Corporate Law
Publications
Review of Good Company, by Lenore Palladino
Journal of Economic Literature
Corporate Social Responsibility through Shareholder Governance
97 Southern California Law Review 417
The Party Structure of Mutual Funds
35 Review of Financial Studies 2839
Choosing the Partnership: English Business Organization Law During the Industrial Revolution
38 Seattle University Law Review 337
Household Finance
An Equilibrium Theory of Retirement Plan Design
12 American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 22
A Behavioral Contract Theory Perspective on Retirement Savings
47 Connecticut Law Review 1317
Consumer Biases and Mutual Ownership
105 Journal of Public Economics 39
Credit Card Pricing: The CARD Act and Beyond
97 Cornell Law Review 967
Selected as one of the Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2012 by Corporate Practice Commentator
Financial Regulation
Regulating Motivation: A New Perspective on the Volcker Rule
96 Texas Law Review 1019
163 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1539
Securitization and Moral Hazard: Evidence from Credit Score Cutoff Rules
63 Journal of Monetary Economics 1
Regulatory Theory
Differentiation through Legal Uncertainty
56 Journal of Legal Studies
TMI? Why the Optimal Architecture of Disclosure Remains TBD
113 Michigan Law Review 1021
Comment: The OIRA Model for Institutionalizing CBA of Financial Regulation
78 Law & Contemporary Problems 47
How Behavioral Economics Trims Its Sails and Why
127 Harvard Law Review 1593
Optimal Agency Bias and Regulatory Review
43 Journal of Legal Studies 95
International Law & Development
The Evolution of Property Rights: State Law or Informal Norms?
56 Journal of Law and Economics 555
The Economics of International Refugee Law
40 Journal of Legal Studies 367
BITs and Bargains: Strategic Aspects of Bilateral and Multilateral Regulation of Foreign Investment
27 International Review of Law and Economics 291
Popular Writing
A Fairer Credit Card? Priceless
New York Times, Op-Ed, June 23, 2009
Honors, Fellowships, and Grants
Scholar-in-Residence, Columbia Law School
Podell Distinguished Teaching Award, NYU School of Law
Senior Visiting Scholar, U.C. Berkeley School of Law
Visiting Fellow, Becker Friedman Institute, University of Chicago
Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Eliot Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard University
Terence M. Considine Fellow in Law and Economics, John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Harvard Law School
Graduate Fellow, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Hewlett Foundation grant for fieldwork for "States, Law, and Property Rights in West Africa"
Project on Justice, Welfare, and Economics Dissertation Fellowship, Harvard University
Warburg Funds Award, Department of Economics, Harvard University
Harrison Prize for Excellence in Physics, College of William and Mary
Phi Beta Kappa, College of William and Mary
Scholarly Presentations
UCLA Law School Business Law Workshop, University of Texas at Austin School of Law Business Law Workshop, University of Texas at Austin School of Law Faculty Workshop, University of Amsterdam Law & Economics Workshop, NYU-SAFE/ESCP BS Law & Finance Conference.
University of Chicago Law School Faculty Workshop, NBER Summer Institute, Notre Dame Law School Law & Economics Workshop, University of Southern California School of Law Faculty Workshop, Columbia Law School Faculty Workshop.
UC Berkeley Law & Economics Workshop, Stanford Law & Economics Workshop, University of Amsterdam Law & Economics Workshop, Columbia Law School Law & Economics Workshop, Harvard Law School Law & Economics Workshop, University of Chicago Law School Law & Economics Workshop, Georgetown Law Faculty Workshop, University of Michigan Faculty Workshop.
Hebrew University Faculty of Law, Private and Commercial Law Workshop; American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting; University of Texas at Austin, Law & Economics Workshop; Cornell Law School, Faculty Workshop.
Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance; University of Hamburg, Hamburg Lectures in Law & Economics; Columbia Law School, Conference Celebrating Henry Hansmann's Book: Ownership of Enterprise; University of California at Berkeley, Organizations and Social Impact Workshop; Max Planck Institute for Collective Goods, Research Seminar.
Columbia Law School Faculty Workshop; NBER Summer Institute; Northwestern University Law School Law & Economics Workshop; UNC Chapel Hill Law School Faculty Workshop.
Oxford University, Business Law Workshop; NYU-Penn Law & Finance Conference; University of Michigan Law & Economics Workshop; University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business Financial Regulation Conference; Swedish House of Finance Conference on Sustainable Finance; Harvard Law School, Law, Economics & Organizations Workshop.
University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Oliver E. Williamson Seminar on Institutional Analysis; Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Law & Economics Workshop; University of Texas at Austin, Law & Economics Workshop; 2017 NYU / SAFE / ETH Law & Banking Conference; Boston College; Harvard Law School Bicentennial.
Duke Law School, Law & Economics Workshop; NYU / Penn Law & Finance Conference; Behavioral Exchange 2016 Conference; American Law & Economics Association Annual Meeting; NBER Law & Economics Summer Institute; National Tax Association Annual Conference; University of Chicago Law & Economics Workshop; University of Amsterdam Empirical Legal Studies Workshop; Copenhagen Business School, Financial Regulation Seminar; Conference on Empirical Legal Studies; Missouri Law Review Symposium, Evaluating Nudge: A Decade of Libertarian Paternalism.
Financial Regulation and Consumer Choice Conference, Vanderbilt Law School; Seton Hall University School of Law, Faculty Workshop; Notre Dame Law School, Law & Economics Workshop; The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Legal Studies & Business Ethics Seminar; Yale Law School, Faculty Workshop; Harvard Law School, Faculty Workshop; Columbia Law School, Faculty Workshop; Duke Law School, Faculty Workshop; Stanford Law School, Faculty Workshop; UC Berkeley School of Law, Faculty Workshop.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Workshop on Evolving Approaches for Valuing the Benefits of Consumer Protection Regulations; Harvard Law School, Law and Economics Workshop; Journal of Law, Finance & Accounting Conference, Discussant; NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy; 6th Annual Berle Symposium: Blair, Stout and Beyond, Seattle University School of Law; Political Economy and Public Law Conference, University of Rochester, Discussant; ETH Zurich / NYU Conference on Regulating Risk Taking in a Post Credit Crisis Environment; Columbia Law School, Administrative Law & Financial Regulation Conference, Commenter; NYU/Penn Law and Finance Conference, Discussant.
Behavioral Insights Team, UK Cabinet Office; Financial Conduct Authority, UK; UNC Charlotte / Atlanta Fed, Government Involvement in Residential Mortgage Finance Conference, Discussant; New York University School of Law, Legal History Colloquium; Harvard Law School, Law and Economics Workshop; University of Virginia Law School, Law and Economics Workshop; University of Chicago Law School, Summer Workshop; Political Economy and Public Law Conference, Washington University in St. Louis; American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting; University of California Berkeley School of Law, Law and Economics Seminar; Stanford Law School, Law and Economics Seminar; University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, Political Economy Workshop; University of Chicago Law School, Law and Economics Seminar.
Yale Law School, Law, Economics and Organizations Seminar; Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Discussant; Harvard Law School, Law, Economics and Organizations Seminar; New York University School of Law, Law, Economics, and Politics Colloquium; Hunter College Department of Economics, Faculty Workshop; Brooklyn Law School, Faculty Workshop; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Research Seminar; Rice University / University of Houston Applied Economics Workshop; NBER Law & Economics Meeting, Discussant; NYU/Penn Law & Finance Conference, Discussant.
Columbia Law School, Blue Sky Workshop; Northwestern University Law School, Law and Economics Colloquium; Northeastern Universities Development Conference; University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Law & Economics Workshop; Cornell Law School, Symposium: Financial Regulatory Reform in the Wake of the Dodd-Frank Act; New York University School of Law, Faculty Workshop; University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Oliver E. Williamson Seminar on Institutional Analysis; Colorado Business Law Junior Faculty Workshop; NBER Law & Economics Meeting, Discussant; Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Stanford / Yale Junior Faculty Forum; American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting; European University Institute Conference on Rethinking Financial Institutions and their Regulation; Brookings Institution, Meeting on Consumer Financial Protection Research and Policy; NYU/Penn Law and Finance Conference.
Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Discussant; Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Conference on Bank Structure and Competition.
Georgetown University Law Center, Law and Economics Workshop; Conference on Empirical Legal Studies; NBER Summer Institute, Law and Economics Session; Frontiers in the Economic Analysis of Contract Law Conference, University of Bonn; American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting; Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; University of Ghana, Institute for Statistical, Social, and Economic Research, Faculty Seminar.
Professional Activities
Bar Admission: New York
Member, Board of Directors, American Law & Economics Association
Co-Editor, Journal of Legal Analysis
Research Member, European Corporate Governance Institute
Refereeing:
- Journal of Legal Analysis
- Journal of Public Economics
- Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
- Journal of Legal Studies
- Journal of Law & Social Inquiry
- American Law and Economics Review
- Quarterly Journal of Economics
- American Economic Review
- Journal of the European Economic Association
- Review of Industrial Organization
- Review of Finance
- Conference on Empirical Legal Studies
- Journal of Financial Regulation