IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/japsta/v26y1999i2p219-228.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting for censoring in duration data: An application to estimating the effect of legal reforms on the duration of medical malpractice disputes

Author

Listed:
  • James Hughes
  • Elizabeth Savoca

Abstract

Using a sample of medical malpractice insurance claims closed between 1 October 1985 and 1 October 1989 in the USA, we estimate the impact of legal reforms on the longevity of disputes, via a competing risks model that accounts for length-biased sampling and a finite sampling horizon. We find that only the 'English rule'-a rule which requires the loser at trial to pay all legal expenses-shortens the duration of disputes. Our results for this law also show that failure to correct for length-biased sampling can incorrectly imply that the English rule lengthens the time needed for settlement and litigation. Our estimates also suggest that tort reforms that place additional procedural hurdles in the plaintiff s' paths tend to lengthen the time to disposition. Here, correction for a finite sampling horizon substantially changes the inferences with regard to the eff ect of this reform on duration.

Suggested Citation

  • James Hughes & Elizabeth Savoca, 1999. "Accounting for censoring in duration data: An application to estimating the effect of legal reforms on the duration of medical malpractice disputes," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 219-228.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:japsta:v:26:y:1999:i:2:p:219-228
    DOI: 10.1080/02664769922557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02664769922557
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02664769922557?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. Hughes, James W & Snyder, Edward A, 1989. "Policy Analysis of Medical Malpractice Reforms: What Can We Learn from Claims Data?," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 7(4), pages 423-431, October.
    2. Henry S. Farber & Michelle J. White, 1991. "Medical Malpractice: An Empirical Examination of the Litigation Process," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(2), pages 199-217, Summer.
    3. Heckman, James J. & Singer, Burton, 1986. "Econometric analysis of longitudinal data," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 29, pages 1689-1763, Elsevier.
    4. Gary M. Fournier & Thomas W. Zuehlke, 1996. "The Timing of Out-of-Court Settlements," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(2), pages 310-321, Summer.
    5. Hughes, James W., 1989. "The effect of medical malpractice reform laws on claim disposition," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 57-78, June.
    6. Snyder, Edward A & Hughes, James W, 1990. "The English Rule for Allocating Legal Costs: Evidence Confronts Theory," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 345-380, Fall.
    7. Carter, Susan B. & Savoca, Elizabeth, 1990. "Labor Mobility and Lengthy Jobs in Nineteenth-Century America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Carter, Susan B. & Savoca, Elizabeth, 1991. "Gender differences in learning and earning in nineteenth-century America: The role of expected job and career attachment," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 323-343, July.
    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. Hughes, James W. & Savoca, Elizabeth, 1997. "Measuring the effect of legal reforms on the longevity of medical malpractice claims," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 261-273, June.
    2. Jacobo Uña-Álvarez, 2002. "Product-limit estimation for length-biased censored data," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 11(1), pages 109-125, June.
    3. Jacobo De UNA-ALvarez & M. Soledad Otero-GirALdez & Gema ALvarez-Llorente, 2003. "Estimation under length-bias and right-censoring: An application to unemployment duration analysis for married women," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 283-291.

    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. Hughes, James W. & Savoca, Elizabeth, 1997. "Measuring the effect of legal reforms on the longevity of medical malpractice claims," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 261-273, June.
    2. Jensen, Gail A. & Spurr, Stephen J. & Weycker, Derek A. & Bulycheva, Maria, 1999. "Physicians and the risk of medical malpractice: The role of prior litigation in predicting the future," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 267-289.
    3. William Choi & Lan Liang, 2007. "Reverse moral hazard of liability insurers: evidence from medical malpractice claims," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(18), pages 2331-2340.
    4. Daniel P. Kessler & Daniel L. Rubinfeld, 2004. "Empirical Study of the Civil Justice System," NBER Working Papers 10825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Yasutora Watanabe, 2005. "Learning and Bargaining in Dispute Resolution: Theory and Evidence from Medical Malpractice Litigation," 2005 Meeting Papers 440, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. J.J. Prescott & Kathryn E. Spier & Albert Yoon, 2014. "Trial and Settlement: A Study of High-Low Agreements," NBER Working Papers 19873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Zhou, J., 2010. "Access to justice : An economic approach," Other publications TiSEM 9d70f451-35c4-4878-92bf-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Peter Grajzl & Katarina Zajc, 2017. "Litigation and the timing of settlement: evidence from commercial disputes," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 287-319, October.
    9. Lerner, Josh, 1995. "Patenting in the Shadow of Competitors," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 463-495, October.
    10. Spurr, Stephen J. & Howze, Sandra, 2001. "The effect of care quality on medical malpractice litigation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 491-513.
    11. J.J. Prescott & Kathryn E. Spier & Albert Yoon, 2014. "Trial and Settlement: A Study of High-Low Agreements," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 699-746.
    12. Joan T. Schmit & Mark J. Browne & Han Duck Lee, 1997. "The Effect Of State Tort Reforms On Claim Filings," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 1(1), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Steven Shavell, 2003. "Economic Analysis of Litigation and the Legal Process," NBER Working Papers 9697, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Peter Van Wijck & Ben Van Velthoven, 2000. "An Economic Analysis of the American and the Continental Rule for Allocating Legal Costs," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 115-125, March.
    15. Argenton, Cedric & Wang, Xiaoyu, 2020. "Litigation and Settlement under Loss Aversion," Discussion Paper 2020-008, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    16. Motchenkova, Evgenia, 2008. "Determination of optimal penalties for antitrust violations in a dynamic setting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 269-291, August.
    17. Sofia Amaral-Garcia, 2015. "Non-economic Damages in Medical Malpractice Appeals: Does the Jurisdiction Make a Difference?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1506, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Argenton, Cedric & Wang, Xiaoyu, 2020. "Litigation and Settlement under Loss Aversion," Discussion Paper 2020-002, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    19. Ormosi, Peter L., 2012. "Tactical dilatory practice in litigation: Evidence from EC merger proceedings," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 370-377.
    20. Michael R. Baye & Dan Kovenock & Casper G. Vries, 2005. "Comparative Analysis of Litigation Systems: An Auction-Theoretic Approach," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(505), pages 583-601, July.

    More about this item

    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:taf:japsta:v:26:y:1999:i:2:p:219-228. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJAS20 .

    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.