We present, for the first time, a model of recent institutional developments in litigation funding across several European jurisdictions. Recognizing the financing constraints that British cost rules may impose on litigants, these new contractual arrangements combine contingency fees with third...

We consider two aspects of the commitment problem in price regulation with lobbying the ratchet effect and the hold-up problem. We set out a dynamic model of price regulation with asymmetric information where the regulated firm can ‘buy influence’ in a lobbying equilibrium. Firms can sink...

We consider a dynamic model of price regulation with asymmetric information where strategic delegation is available to the regulator. Firms can sink non- contractible, cost-reducing investment but regulators cannot commit to future price levels. We fully characterize the Perfect Bayesian...

This Paper examines a general problem exemplified by post-auction (third generation ‘3G’) mobile telecommunications markets and by recent developments in the UK market for postal services. When entering these (or any other) markets, firms must often decide on the degree of coverage...

Delegation to independent bodies whose preference can be different from those of the government has been shown to have beneficial commitment benefits in areas as widely diverse as monetary policy and trade. This paper addresses the case for delegation in the context of a cost-reimbursement...

Delay in litigation is a policy concern in many jurisdictions. Little evidence is available on the causes of such delay, however. The authors present a version of K. Spier's (1992) bargaining model of litigation and derive directly a functional form for the conditional probability of case...

In Britain, the NHS spends millions of pounds a year compensating patients injured during medical treatment. Compensation is paid if the patient can demonstrate that treatment was supplied negligently. However, concern over the cost, effectiveness and administrative efficiency of this approach...

This paper considers whether lawyers, acting as agents, respond to financial incentives which are extraneous to their clients' requirements. The authors take, as a case study, lawyers performing legal aid work in England and Wales. An empirical model of legal aid expenditure variations across...