IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/ejlwec/v40y2015i3p393-411.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Negligence and two-sided causation

Author

Listed:
  • Keith Hylton
  • Haizhen Lin
  • Hyo-Youn Chu

Abstract

We extend the economic analysis of negligence and intervening causation to “two-sided causation” scenarios. In the two-sided causation scenario the effectiveness of the injurer’s care depends on some intervention, and the risk of harm generated by the injurer’s failure to take care depends on some other intervention. We find that the distortion from socially optimal care is more severe in the two-sided causation scenario than in the one-sided causation scenario, and generally in the direction of excessive care. The practical lesson is that the likelihood that injurers will have optimal care incentives under the negligence test in the presence of intervening causal factors is low. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Keith Hylton & Haizhen Lin & Hyo-Youn Chu, 2015. "Negligence and two-sided causation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 393-411, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:ejlwec:v:40:y:2015:i:3:p:393-411
    DOI: 10.1007/s10657-015-9490-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10657-015-9490-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10657-015-9490-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baumann, Florian & Friehe, Tim, 2013. "Private protection against crime when property value is private information," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 73-79.
    2. Marks, Stephen, 1994. "Discontinuities, Causation, and Grady's Uncertainty Theorem," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 287-301, January.
    3. Shavell, Steven, 1985. "Uncertainty over Causation and the Determination of Civil Liability," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 587-609, October.
    4. Hylton, Keith N. & Lin, Haizhen, 2013. "Negligence, causation, and incentives for care," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 80-89.
    5. Kahan, Marcel, 1989. "Causation and Incentives to Take Care under the Negligence Rule," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 427-447, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lando, Henrik & Schweizer, Urs, 2021. "Causation and the incentives of multiple injurers," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Juergen G. Backhaus, 2017. "Lawyers’ economics versus economic analysis of law: a critique of professor Posner’s “economic” approach to law by reference to a case concerning damages for loss of earning capacity," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 517-534, June.

    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. Keith N. Hylton & Haizhen Lin & Hyo-Youn Chu, 2013. "Negligence and Two-Sided Causation," Working Papers 2013-05, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    2. Singh, Ram, 2007. "‘Causation-consistent’ liability, economic efficiency and the law of torts," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 179-203.
    3. Yves Oytana & Nathalie Chappe, 2018. "Expert opinion in a tort litigation game," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 67-107, August.
    4. Hylton, Keith N. & Lin, Haizhen, 2013. "Negligence, causation, and incentives for care," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 80-89.
    5. Gérard Mondello, 2013. "Ambiguous Beliefs on Damages and Civil Liability Theories"," Post-Print halshs-00929948, HAL.
    6. Feldman Allan M. & Singh Ram, 2011. "A Simple Guide to Comparative Vigilance," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Stremitzer, Alexander & Tabbach, Avraham, 2009. "Insolvency and Biased Standards--The Case for Proportional Liability," Working Papers 75r, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    8. Allan M Feldman & Ram Singh, 2008. "Comparative Vigilance: a Simple Guide," Working Papers 2008-11, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    9. Ram Singh, 2006. "On the Existence and Efficiency of Equilibria under Liability Rules," Working papers 150, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    10. Allan M. Feldman & Ram Singh, 2009. "Comparative Vigilance," American Law and Economics Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 134-161.
    11. FRANCESCO PARISI & Ram Singh, 2009. "Efficiency Of Equilibria Under Comparative Causation," Working papers 179, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    12. Steven Shavell, 2005. "Liability for Accidents," NBER Working Papers 11781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Schweizer, Urs, 2008. "Legal Damages for Losses of Chances," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 235, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    14. Gérard Mondello, 2015. "Civil liability, Knight's UnCertainty and non-diCtatorial regUlator Documents de travail GREDEG GREDEG Working Papers Series," Working Papers hal-01251437, HAL.
    15. Donatella Porrini, 2005. "Environmental Policies Choice as an Issue of Informational Efficiency," Chapters, in: Jürgen G. Backhaus (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition, chapter 23, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Gomez, Fernando & Penalva, Jose, 2015. "Tort reform and the theory of coordinating tort and insurance," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 83-97.
    17. Guiseppe Dari Mattiaci & F. Parisi, 2003. "The Economics of Tort Law: A Précis," Working Papers 03-13, Utrecht School of Economics.
    18. Schweizer, Urs, 2009. "Legal damages for losses of chances," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 153-160, June.
    19. Mondello, Gérard, 2012. "La responsabilité environnementale des prêteurs : difficultés juridiques et ensemble des possibles," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 88(2), pages 257-278, Juin.
    20. Jing Chen & Yuan Zheng, 2020. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: User information protection of e-commerce platform business based on credit evaluation system," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 945-954, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Negligence; Causation; Proximate cause; Intervening causal factor; Optimal care; Proportionate damages; D81; K00; K1; K13; K40; K41;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • K00 - Law and Economics - - General - - - General (including Data Sources and Description)
    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law
    • K13 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Tort Law and Product Liability; Forensic Economics
    • K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process

    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:kap:ejlwec:v:40:y:2015:i:3:p:393-411. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.