The literature argues that if injurers cannot anticipate the precise level of harm, courts might use expected harm as a magnitude of compensation instead of actual harm without distorting care incentives. This paper shows that the use of expected harm is in fact preferable if victims choose the...

This paper analyzes private precautions against crime when the value of the property to be protected is private information. In a framework in which potential criminals can choose between different crime opportunities, we establish that decentralized decision-making by potential victims may lead...

This paper starts from the premise that liability is incomplete and establishes that firms may nevertheless invest excessively in care. This may justify a (further) reduction in the level of liability from a social standpoint, thereby arguing against seeking to approach full compensation as...

This paper considers victim heterogeneity in harm levels in a bilateral-care model, where harm is private information. In practice, resources are expended on the verification of damages suffered. We establish a sufficient condition for the possibility to accurately deduce the harm level from the...

This paper analyzes care incentives of individuals in a bilateral-harm setting if care choices are sequential. We find that the efficient outcome is not guaranteed under any liability rule considered, irrespective of whether information is perfect or imperfect. Furthermore, it is no longer...

Offenders differ with respect to their detection probability in reality. Bebchuk and Kaplow [Bebchuk, L. A., & Kaplow, L. (1993). Optimal sanctions and differences in individuals' likelihood of avoiding detection. International Review of Law and Economics, 13, 217-224] conclude that optimal...

This paper studies optimal law enforcement in a model featuring preventive and non-preventive enforcement. Non-preventive enforcement is aimed at detecting and punishing offenders, while preventive enforcement seeks to prevent potential offenders from carrying out illegal actions (for example,...

This paper studies the impact of varying defendant fault on the comparison of litigation outcomes under the contingent fee regime and the legal expenses insurance regime. The criteria for regime comparison are: (i) expected plaintiff payoffs, (ii) plaintiff and defendant expenditures, (iii)...

This paper explores the interaction of private precaution and public safety investments that are determined in a political process. We distinguish between a scenario in which the median-voter victim influences public safety and one in which the injurer lobbies the public agent, analyzing both...