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Legal Damages at Uncertain Causation

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Author Info
Urs Schweizer (Department of Economics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24, 53113 Bonn, Germany. schweizer@uni-bonn.de)
Abstract

The legal notion of damages requires to compare the actual value of the creditor’s assets with the hypothetical value that would have prevailed if the debtor had met his obligation. Moreover, values and causation may be uncertain. If nature’s contribution is modelled as a random move then the interaction between debtor and nature can be described in normal form which, in turn, allows to capture causality and legal damages in a consistent way. In practice, such random moves of nature are rarely observable. Yet, statistical inference may reveal sufficient information to test for causation and to estimate legal damages on average over observable events as the present paper will establish.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich in its series Discussion Papers with number 160.

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Date of creation: Aug 2006
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Handle: RePEc:trf:wpaper:160

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Related research
Keywords: estimating legal damages; liability for torts; liability for breach of contracts;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
K13 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Tort Law and Product Liability
K12 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Contract Law
D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Kahan, Marcel, 1989. "Causation and Incentives to Take Care under the Negligence Rule," Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 427-47, June.
  2. Roger B. Myerson, 1999. "Nash Equilibrium and the History of Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1067-1082, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Schweizer, Urs, 2005. "Law and Economics of Obligations," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 209-228, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Eberhard Feess & Gerd Muehlheusser & Ansgar Wohlschlegel, 2009. "Environmental liability under uncertain causation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 133-148, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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