This paper establishes that tort damages multipliers higher than one can be an instrument to induce imperfectly competitive producers to invest in product safety at socially optimal levels. In their selection of product safety levels, producers seek to maximize profits, neglecting the fact that...

The liability for defective products was for the first time introduced in 1994 by the new Civil Code. It widely reflects the liability regime provided by Directive 85/374 on product liability. In order to analyse the Albanian system on product liability as a special regime of extra-contractual...

In this paper, we examine the link between innovative activity on the part of firms, the competitive pressure to introduce innovations and optimal damages awards. While innovative activity brings forth valuable new products for consumers, competitive pressure in the ensuing innovation race...

We contrast alternative liability rules for social control of product risks when heterogeneous consumers considering purchasing a durable good due to cognitive errors and biases mispredict future product benefits and, thus, the extent of future product usage. Since the expected consumer harm...

Merck & Co., Inc. pulled Vioxx, a $2.5 billon a year nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, off the shelf in September 2004. The removal followed a study that was published reporting Vioxx increased the risk of cardiovascular events after long-term use. In the years since then, many lawsuits have...

In June 1997, the American Law Institute adopted the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability. The restatement attempts to organize, clarify, and restate thirty years of case law decided under a single provision, section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Section 402A was itself...

This paper presents a largely positive analysis of products liability law, in the sense that it aims to predict the incentive effects and the welfare consequences of the law, with close regard to its specific legal tests and the real-world constraints that impinge on these tests. The other major...

The concept of strict liability has important theoretical significance but almost no analytical or doctrinal traction. In fact, at least in the realm of abnormally dangerous activities, the function of quot;strict liabilityquot; should be, and is being, replaced by an analysis that examines the...

Punitive damages have been around for centuries in classic one-on-one tort actions and are here to stay. Mass torts, of more recent origin and not without difficulties, have matured to the point that this article is comfortable referring to most of them as traditional. Notwithstanding the...