Gary Becker and Richard Posner on Deterrence

I read the Posner & Becker postings on capital punishment and deterrence (to which Rick called our attention this morning, here) shortly after reading the Donohue-Wolfers paper (about which I posted this morning, here) that will soon appear in the Stanford Law Review.  It seems clear that Becker and Posner posted before reading the Donohue-Wolfers paper.  It will be interesting to see what they say after they've read the paper.  The Donohue-Wolfers paper mounts a powerful econometric argument that there is no empirical basis for "believing" (as Becker says he does) that the capital punishment has a deterrent effect.  (In the same issue of the Stanford Law Review, Carol Steiker of Harvard argues a "moral" case--as distinct from Donohue-Wolfers's '"economic" case--against capital punishment.  For Steiker's paper, click here.)
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