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The benefits of extended liability
Author(s) -
Hiriart Yolande,
Martimort David
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the rand journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.687
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1756-2171
pISSN - 0741-6261
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-2171.2006.tb00031.x
Subject(s) - principal (computer security) , liability , business , limited liability , bargaining power , ex ante , welfare , value (mathematics) , stakeholder , microeconomics , economics , finance , market economy , computer science , computer security , management , machine learning , macroeconomics
We characterize the optimal regulation of a firm that undertakes an environmentally risky activity. This firm (the agent)is protected by limited liability and bound by contract to a stakeholder (the principal). The level of safety care exerted by the agent is nonobservable. This level of care depends both on the degree of incompleteness of the regulatory contract and on the allocation of bargaining power between the principal and the agent. Increasing the wealth of the principal that can be seized upon an accident has no value when private transactions are regulated but might otherwise strictly improve welfare. An incomplete regulation supplemented by an ex post extended liability regime can sometime achieve the second best.