Eric Alston (University of Colorado Boulder) is a Visiting Fellow at the ANU College of Law. 

What are your research interests?

The intersection of institutional and organizational analysis, comparative constitutional law, and law and economics frame my research projects. My research agenda can be summarized most broadly as inspired by a desire to better understand institutional change; through clarifying the costs and benefits of specific institutional choices in theory and practice, my research is intended to improve the scholarly understanding of institutional transitions, whether constitutional, legal, or those undertaken in private governance. Within this admittedly broad rubric, I pursue several distinct topics, which are linked by both the analytical approach I describe above, but also methodologies honed through my graduate school study of law and economics and institutional and organizational analysis (not to mention reams of historical case law along the U.S. western frontier). I see the unifying theme across my research topics as different examples of institutional emergence, contexts that can tell us a lot about the social tradeoffs implicit to the choice and implementation of different institutional regimes. I thus divide my research stream into four topical areas – informed by my study of: (i) critical periods of historical economic institutional development; and (ii) more general institutional and organizational theory and design; I additionally pursue applied questions in: (iii) digital governance (esp. blockchain & cryptocurrencies); and (iv) constitutional design. As listed on my C.V., the topical buckets into which I place my various publications and projects are: Law & economics, institutional and organizational analysis, digital governance, constitutional design, blockchain and digital currencies, economic institutional change, and 19th-century US legal and economic history.

What motivated you to come to the ANU College of Law as a Visiting Fellow?

I wanted the opportunity to share my latest research with the scholars and experts who teach at the ANU College of Law. I was originally put in touch with Will Bateman by Rosalind Dixon of UNSW, and have since corresponded with Leighton McDonald about my visit in terms of preparation. The ANU Law faculty’s expertise in tech policy in general, and cryptocurrencies in particular (Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung) make this a great place to present in full for the first time my Templeton World Charity Foundation funded grant research on “Risk Propagation Across Cryptocurrency Networks”.

How have you found your time so far at the College? 

I have found the staff and faculty very welcoming and enjoyed keeping my visitor’s office door open, as I’ve already had a delightful conversation with Asmi Wood on topics ranging from Indigenous rights to the future of global monetary policy. I also enjoyed the morning tea held outside this morning where I was warmly welcomed by Professor Stellios, Head of the ANU Law School and introduced to faculty and staff. Canberra is a delight to return to, as I actually lived here when I was younger, as my father was a visiting professor in the economics department now some 36 years ago! Landmarks like the Carillon, the National Parliament, and the National Library are fondly redolent with nostalgia for me, as my earliest childhood memories are from time spent on the lake and at the various landmarks around the city.

Your visitor's seminar is entitled Do Cryptocurrency Markets Bear Discipline? – Price Comovement and Market Downturns. Why have you chosen to speak on this topic?

My project’s title, coauthored with Ali Jafarzadeh (also of CU Boulder Finance) now is Risk Propagation Across Cryptocurrency Networks, even as we explore the subject of the original title in our analysis. This project reveals the value of applying network analysis techniques to questions of regulatory information propagation within complex systems. Given the recent resurgence of cryptocurrency prices, these networks are in the news once more, and our analysis sheds light on prior regulatory interventions’ effect on these networks in ways that has predictive value for ongoing regulatory definition and intervention in the coming years. We also think our analysis has additional value for emphasizing the promise of network analysis for exploring information propagation within complex systems in particular, as well propagation of regulatory risk in financial markets more specifically.

What is next for you beyond your ANU fellowship?

While here in Australia, I’ll be presenting research on definition of subnational government in constitutional text as a function of national characteristics like population and ethnolinguistic fractionalization (“Demand for Constitutional Decentralization”) at an annual Constitutional Roundtable held at UNSW Law by Rosalind Dixon, and I look forward to continuing to explore exciting topics in economic institutions, constitutional design, and digital governance in my ongoing research projects listed on my CV, all in furtherance of eventual publication in law reviews and peer-reviewed journals.