This paper proposes a theoretical analysis of final-offer arbitration in which disputants may be represented by lawyers who can be paid by flat, contingent, or conditional fees. We derive the equilibrium lawyers' efforts to defend their clients and the equilibrium parties' proposals made to the...

In negotiations purely over interests, someone who initiates a concession but fails to reach agreement has lost nothing, but with honour at stake, initiating a concession reveals one as willing to compromise over honour. A mediator can help by suggesting a compromise that both parties would not...

Empirical and experimental research suggests that minimum wages cause spillovers to wages higher up in the wage distribution, i.e., they may even raise wages that were already above the new minimum wage. In this paper, we analyze how these findings can be explained by theoretical wage bargaining...

The consequences of strike ballots are analysed in a non-cooperative model of negotiations between a union and a firm over wage increases. The firm possesses private information about its revenues. The union can only stop the firm from rejecting wage demands if a refusal is costly, due to a...

We study the determinants of the skill premium in a matching model where wages are set in bilateral meetings between workers and firms. As a novelty, disagreeing parties do not have to separate immediately, but they may opt to wait for competing agents to arrive. This waiting option is...

Comparative law and finance quantifies differences in the laws governing the business enterprise in various countries. The resulting data can be used to test which legal institutions (if any) matter for financial development. Until recently only cross-sectional data were available. We report the...

Labor law limits the freedom of individual firms and agents to deviate from the clauses prescribed by collective wage agreements. We show that employers´ associations and unions may exploit this legal framework to stabilize product market cartels. This new view on the institution of collective...

We claim that Posner's nuisance rule maintains the efficiency feature even under severe informational asymmetry. This paper, as a critical assessment of an overly complicated order-reporting mechanism by Kim [2002], argues that Posner's original value-reporting mechanism alone is enough to...

In trials witnesses often slant their testimony in order to advance their own interests. To obtain truthful testimony, the law relies on cross-examination under threat of prosecution for perjury. We show that perjury law is an imperfect truthrevealing mechanism. Moreover, we develop a...