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Looking for Help on SSRN

By Jim Chen et al.

I do not want to jump to conclusions and may be the last to know so I'd like to understand the SSRN business plan. I have in the past expressed my suspicions about what numbers of downloads mean and why there appears to be a top ten list for virtually everything. I personally have made some with just a handful of downloads. My non-holiday-spirit side thinks that the infinite number of top ten lists is a selling point to encourage people to upload, then make a top ten list, and promptly report it to the dean or the world.

Now, again perhaps the last to discover it, there is something else. If you click on my ssrn page which I think is to the right of this post an then click on the second article down, you will see that it is about estate planning. And, to the right of the abstract there are ads for estate planners.

I assume the advertising is not free and that this the source of ssrn revenue. If I have this right, should ssrn be paying law professors or their schools to upload their articles? Or, is there already payment in the form of "top ten" lists.

I guess in a world in which Senate seats may appear on ebay soon, I should not be surprised.

Full post as published by MoneyLaw on December 10, 2008 (boomark / email).