On the Effectiveness of Liability Rules when Agents Are Not Identical
Abstract
This paper is about accidents involving two risk-neutral parties. Both parties engage in actions that are profitable but affect the magnitude of possible bilateral accidents. The authors analyze how the action choices can be decentralized by liability rules that assign the accident costs. If the authors allow for punitive damages, they can implement the first-best actions by a liability rule even if agents are not identical. Under this liability rule, some individuals may be in expectation better off in the event of an accident than in the event of no accident. The authors provide conditions under which this problem does not arise. Copyright 1991 by The Review of Economic Studies Limited.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Wiley Blackwell in its journal Review of Economic Studies.
Volume (Year): 58 (1991)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 375-90
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Web page: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0034-6527
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Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Emons,Winand & Sobel,Joel, 1988. "On the effectiveness of liability rules when agents are not identical," Discussion Paper Serie A 212, University of Bonn, Germany.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Bartsch, Elga, 1997. "Environmental liability, imperfect information, and multidimensional pollution control," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 139-146, March.
- Cooter, Robert D. & Emons, Winand, 2000.
"Truth-Bonding and Other Truth-Revealing Mechanisms for Courts,"
Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series
qt35j9s08h, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
- Robert Cooter & Winand Emons, 2004. "Truth-Bonding and Other Truth-Revealing Mechanisms for Courts," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 307-327, May.
- Gonz�lez, Patrick, 2003. "Optimal Assignment of Liabilities," Cahiers de recherche 0305, GREEN.
- Ram Singh, 2004. "‘Full’ Compensation Criteria: An Enquiry into Relative Merits," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 223-237, September.
- Chen, Yongmin & Hua, Xinyu, 2010. "Ex ante Investment, Ex post Remedy, and Product Liability," MPRA Paper 22031, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Hoffmann, Sandra & Schwartz, Warren & Dharmapala, Dhammika, 2001. "A Neglected Interdependency in Liability Theory," Discussion Papers dp-01-13, Resources For the Future.
- Dhammika Dharmapala & Sandra A. Hoffmann, 2005.
"Bilateral Accidents with Intrinsically Interdependent Costs of Precaution,"
The Journal of Legal Studies,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 239-272, 01.
- Dhammika Dharmapala & Sandra A. Hoffmann, 2002. "Bilateral Accidents with Intrinsically Interdependent Costs of Precaution," Working papers 2002-11, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
- Ram Singh, 2006.
"On the Existence and Efficiency of Equilibria Under Liability Rules,"
NBER Working Papers
12625, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Ram Singh, 2008. "On The Existence and Efficiency of Equilibria Under Liability Rules," Working Papers id:1716, eSocialSciences.
- Ram Singh, 2006. "On the Existence and Efficiency of Equilibria under Liability Rules," Working papers 150, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
- Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Gerrit De Geest, 2005.
"The Filtering Effect of Sharing Rules,"
The Journal of Legal Studies,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 207-237, 01.
- Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Gerrit de Geest, 2004. "The Filtering Effect of Sharing Rules," Working Papers 04-17, Utrecht School of Economics.
- Winand Emons, 2005.
"Perjury versus Truth Revelation: Quantity or Quality of Testimony,"
Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE),
Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 161(3), pages 392-, September.
- Winand Emons, 2001. "Perjury versus Truth-Revelation: Quantity or Quality of Testimony," Diskussionsschriften dp0103, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
- Baumann, Florian & Friehe, Tim, 2009. "On the superiority of damage averaging in the case of strict liability," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 138-142, June.
- Bartsch, Elga, 1996. "Enforcement of environmental liability in the case of uncertain causality and asymmetric information," Kiel Working Papers 755, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
- Steven Shavell, 2005. "Liability for Accidents," NBER Working Papers 11781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Ram Singh, 2008.
"Risk, Informational Asymmetry and Product Liability; An enquiry into conflicting objectives,"
Working papers
164, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
- Ram Singh, 2009. "RISK, INFORMATIONAL ASYMMETRY AND PRODUCT LIABILITY: An Enquiry Into Conflicting Objectives," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 89-112, 02.
- Ram Singh, 2008. "Risk, Informational Asymmetry and Product Liability: An Enquiry into Conflicting Objectives," Working Papers id:1466, eSocialSciences.
- Robert Cooter & Winand Emons, 2003.
"Truth-Revealing Mechanisms for Courts,"
Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE),
Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 159(2), pages 259-, June.
- Robert Cooter & Winand Emons, 2000. "Truth-Revealing Mechanisms for Courts," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0211, Econometric Society.
- Patrick González, 2004. "Nash Implementable Liability Rules for Judgement-Proof Injurers," CIRANO Working Papers 2004s-58, CIRANO.
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