Jingkang (Jake) Gao

Visiting Assistant Professor of Law
Ribstein Fellow

About

Jake Gao explores how legal institutions can make urban mobility safer, cleaner, more accessible, and more equitable, and how insights from urban mobility can enrich the study of law. His research projects include experimentally testing the potential impact of the biases of civil jurors on the adoption of autonomous vehicles, describing a process for making algorithmic law that accounts for the spatial implications and interactive effects of individual behavior, and measuring the role of normative motivations for compliance with the law. He has applied his background in law in his work with the Chicago Transit Authority on facilitating bus electrification and cultivating a healthier electric bus market in the United States.

Education

MS, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JD Columbia Law School
BSE Princeton University

Areas of Expertise

Economic and Behavioral Analysis of Law
Torts

Courses

Behavioral Economics and the Law

Selected Publications

Gao, J., Jackson, J., & Zhao, J. (2023). Motivations for watching videos on mobile phones while driving in parking lots and while waiting at intersections in the United States. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 92, 155–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2022.11.002

Gao, J., & Zhao, J. (2018). Legitimacy versus morality: Why do the Chinese obey the law? Law and Human Behavior, 42(2), 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000271

Gao, J., & Zhao, J. (2017). Normative and image motivations for transportation policy compliance. Urban Studies, 54(14), Article 14.

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