Economic Analysis of Liability Rules

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 1-22

3. Efficiency Criteria

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 23-33

4. The Structure of Efficient Liability Rules

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 35-62

5. Decoupled Liability and Efficiency

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 63-77

6. Negligence as Failure to Take Some Cost-Justified Precaution

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 79-92

7. The Structure of Incremental Liability Rules

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 93-111

8. The Negligence Rule

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 113-132

9. Decomposition of Loss and a Class of Negligence Rules

   • Satish Kumar Jain

   Pages 133-143

10. Multiple Injurers and Victims

    • Satish Kumar Jain

    Pages 145-167

11. Epilogue

    • Satish Kumar Jain

    Pages 169-175

12. Back Matter

    Pages 177-180

    PDF

This book focuses on the analysis of liability rules of tort law from an efficiency perspective, presenting a comprehensive analysis of these rules in a self-contained and rigorous yet accessible manner. It establishes general results on the efficiency of liability rules, including complete characterizations of efficient liability rules and efficient incremental liability rules. The book also establishes that the untaken precaution approach and decoupled liability are incompatible with efficiency.

The economic analysis of tort law has established that for efficiency it is necessary that each party to the interaction must be made to internalize the harm resulting from the interaction. The characterization and impossibility theorems presented in this book establish that, in addition to internalization of the harm by each party, there are two additional requirements for efficiency. Firstly, rules must be immune from strategic manipulation. Secondly, rules must entail closure with respect to the parties involved in the interaction giving rise to the negative externality, i.e., the liability must not be decoupled.

• Externalities
• Law and Economics
• Liability Rules
• Non-Efficiency Values
• The Coase Theorem
• Tort Model

“The book under review is an excellent text which deals with some key topics in the field of law and economics … . most fascinating element of this book is its elegant framework of analysis which is simple and yet quite general and rigorous. … This book has the potential to foster further study of law and legal system … . It is highly recommended for those who are looking for research agenda in the field of law and economics.” (Papiya Ghosh, Indian Economic Review, Vol. 52, 2017)

• Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

  Satish Kumar Jain

Satish K. Jain is Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. He did his Master’s in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, and Ph.D.  from the University of Rochester, USA. His areas of interest are law and economics, and social choice theory.

Policies and ethics