IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jgames/v14y2023i4p55-d1205111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Asymmetric Reimbursement and Contingent Fees in Environmental Conflicts: Observable vs. Unobservable Contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Sung-Hoon Park

    (Department of Economics, Chosun University, 309 Philmoondaero, Dong-gu, Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea)

  • Chad E. Settle

    (Department of Economics, University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA)

Abstract

We investigate the impact of observability of contracts between a plaintiff and his attorney on both the efficiency of the environmental conflict and the fairness of the resulting outcome from the environmental conflict. By including two specific game-theoretic models (an observable-contract game and an unobservable-contract game), we find two key results: (i) The unobservability of a contract may increase inefficiency of the environmental conflict in terms of legal efforts; however, (ii) the unobservability of a contract may increase the fairness of the outcome in terms of the plaintiff’s probability of winning the contest.

Suggested Citation

  • Sung-Hoon Park & Chad E. Settle, 2023. "Asymmetric Reimbursement and Contingent Fees in Environmental Conflicts: Observable vs. Unobservable Contracts," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-10, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:14:y:2023:i:4:p:55-:d:1205111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/14/4/55/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/14/4/55/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alex Dickson & Ian A. MacKenzie & Petros G. Sekeris, 2022. "Rent Dissipation in Simple Tullock Contests," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Kubler, Dorothea & Muller, Wieland, 2002. "Simultaneous and sequential price competition in heterogeneous duopoly markets: experimental evidence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1437-1460, December.
    3. Byung In Lim & Jason Shogren, 2004. "Unilateral delegation and reimbursement systems in an environmental conflict," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(8), pages 489-493.
    4. Shmuel Nitzan, 2008. "Collective Rent Dissipation," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Arye L. Hillman & Kai A. Konrad (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 1, pages 309-321, Springer.
    5. Levent Koçkesen & Efe A. Ok, 2004. "Strategic Delegation By Unobservable Incentive Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(2), pages 397-424.
    6. Parimal Bag & Santanu Roy, 2011. "On sequential and simultaneous contributions under incomplete information," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 40(1), pages 119-145, February.
    7. Dana, James D, Jr & Spier, Kathryn E, 1993. "Expertise and Contingent Fees: The Role of Asymmetric Information in Attorney Compensation," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 349-367, October.
    8. Baik Kyung Hwan & Shogren Jason F., 1994. "Environmental Conflicts with Reimbursement for Citizen Suits," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, July.
    9. Park Sung-Hoon & Lee Sanghack, 2020. "Legal Contests with Unilateral Delegation," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, April.
    10. Sung-Hoon Park, 2010. "Asymmetric reimbursement system in an environmental conflict," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(12), pages 1197-1199.
    11. Rabah Amir & Evangelia Chalioti & Christine Halmenschlager, 2021. "University–firm competition in basic research: Simultaneous versus sequential moves," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(6), pages 1199-1219, December.
    12. Baik, Kyung Hwan & Kim, In-Gyu, 2007. "Contingent fees versus legal expenses insurance," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 351-361, September.
    13. Alexander Matros & Daniel Armanios, 2009. "Tullock’s contest with reimbursements," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 49-63, October.
    14. Sung-Hoon Park, 2022. "Contingent fees and endogenous timing in litigation contests," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 453-473, December.
    15. Florian Baumann & Tim Friehe, 2012. "Contingent fees meet the British rule: an exploratory study," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 499-510, March.
    16. Sung-Hoon Park & Chad Settle, 2022. "Internalizing environmental damages and endogenous reimbursement in environmental conflicts: a game-theoretic analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(4), pages 547-569, December.
    17. Varian, Hal R., 1994. "Sequential contributions to public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 165-186, February.
    18. Florian Baumann & Tim Friehe, 2013. "A note on the timing of investments in litigation contests," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 313-326, June.
    19. Todd L Cherry & Stephen J Cotten, 2012. "Environmental conflicts with reimbursement: experimental evidence," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(4), pages 3224-3232.
    20. Rabah Amir & Evangelia Chalioti & Christine Halmenschlager, 2021. "University competition in basic research: Simultaneous versus sequential moves," Post-Print hal-04120459, HAL.
    21. repec:cdl:econwp:qt79b870w0 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Hurley, Terrance M, 1998. "Rent Dissipation and Efficiency in a Contest with Asymmetric Valuations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(3-4), pages 289-298, March.
    23. Dan Kovenock & Florian Morath & Johannes Münster, 2015. "Information Sharing in Contests," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 570-596, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sung-Hoon Park & Chad Settle, 2022. "Internalizing environmental damages and endogenous reimbursement in environmental conflicts: a game-theoretic analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(4), pages 547-569, December.
    2. Sung-Hoon Park, 2022. "Contingent fees and endogenous timing in litigation contests," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 453-473, December.
    3. Park Sung-Hoon & Lee Sanghack, 2020. "Legal Contests with Unilateral Delegation," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, April.
    4. Hurley, Terrance M. & Shogren, Jason F., 1998. "Asymmetric information contests," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 645-665, November.
    5. Kai A. Konrad & Florian Morath, 2018. "To Deter Or To Moderate? Alliance Formation In Contests With Incomplete Information," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1447-1463, July.
    6. Ferrari, Giorgio & Riedel, Frank & Steg, Jan-Henrik, 2016. "Continuous-Time Public Good Contribution under Uncertainty," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 485, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    7. Altınok, Ahmet & Yılmaz, Murat, 2018. "Dynamic voluntary contribution to a public project under time inconsistency," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 114-140.
    8. Russo, Giuseppe & Senatore, Luigi, 2012. "A note on contribution games with loss functions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 211-214.
    9. Baik, Kyung Hwan & Kim, In-Gyu, 1997. "Delegation in contests," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 281-298, May.
    10. Morin Chassé, Rémi, 2019. "Strategic behavior in environmental contests with asymmetric ability and reimbursement," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 115-126.
    11. Jun‐ichi Itaya & Chikara Yamaguchi, 2023. "Endogenous leadership and sustainability of enhanced cooperation in a repeated interactions model of tax competition: Endogenous leadership in tax competition," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(2), pages 276-300, April.
    12. Yifen Mu, 2014. "Inverse Stackelberg Public Goods Game with Multiple Hierarchies Under Global and Local Information Structures," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 332-350, October.
    13. Huizhong Liu & Jingwen Tian, 2024. "Spillovers and strategic commitment in R&D," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 477-501, May.
    14. Ellman, Matthew & Hurkens, Sjaak, 2019. "Optimal crowdfunding design," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    15. Jack, B. Kelsey & Recalde, María P., 2015. "Leadership and the voluntary provision of public goods: Field evidence from Bolivia," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 80-93.
    16. Kyung Hwan Baik & Dongryul Lee, 2020. "Decisions of Duopoly Firms on Sharing Information on Their Delegation Contracts," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(1), pages 145-165, August.
    17. Konstantinos Protopappas, 2023. "Manipulation of moves in sequential contests," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(3), pages 511-535, October.
    18. Friehe, Tim, 2010. "Contingent fees and legal expenses insurance: Comparison for varying defendant fault," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 283-290, December.
    19. Florian Baumann & Tim Friehe, 2012. "Contingent fees meet the British rule: an exploratory study," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 499-510, March.
    20. Qiang Fu & Jingfeng Lu, 2020. "On Equilibrium Player Ordering In Dynamic Team Contests," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1830-1844, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:14:y:2023:i:4:p:55-:d:1205111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.