Capitalism’s Legal Regime

How do legal systems shape capitalism and the creation of wealth? Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Katharina Pistor, a leading scholar of law, property rights, and corporate governance, to explore this question.

Often described as an economic system, capitalism, Pistor argues, is fundamentally a legal regime. Her latest book, The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform It, reveals how laws governing property, contracts, corporations, and finance convert assets, promises, and ideas into capital. She posits that this system generates unprecedented wealth, contributing to increasing inequality while simultaneously straining social and political cohesion and challenging democratic governance.

Pistor will be joined by Steven Durlauf, founding director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, and Damon Jones, the Center’s Associate Director.

Durlauf, whose work focuses on inequality and intergenerational mobility, will share insights into how economic structures shape opportunity and wealth. Jones, whose research spans tax policy, household finance, and labor economics, will illuminate how legal and administrative complexity contributes to unequal outcomes.

The conversation will be moderated by Jacob Goldin, Richard M. Lipton Professor, a leading scholar of tax law and administrative systems whose research examines how taxation structures shape outcomes for low-income households across groups.

This event offers a valuable opportunity to engage with pressing questions about capitalism, inequality, and the legal and policy changes needed to build a more just and sustainable economic future.

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