Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/38963
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3073
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We focus in this paper on the effects of court errors on the optimal sharing of liability between firms and financiers, as an environmental policy instrument. Using a structural model of the interactions between firms, financial institutions, governments and courts we show, through numerical simulations, the distortions in liability sharing between firms and financiers that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. We consider in particular the role played by the efficiency of the courts in avoiding Type I (finding an innocent firm guilty of inappropriate care) and Type II (finding a guilty firm innocent of inappropriate care) errors. This role is considered in a context where liability sharing is already distorted (when compared with first best values) due not only to the courts' own imperfect assessment of safety care levels exerted by firm but also to the presence of moral hazard and adverse selection in financial contracting, as well as of non-congruence of objectives between firms and financiers on the one hand and social welfare maximization on the other. Our results indicate that an increase in the efficiency of the court system in avoiding errors raises safety care levels, thereby reducing the probability of accident, and allowing the social welfare maximizing government to impose a lower liability [higher] share for firms [financiers] as well as a lower standard level of care.
Subjects: 
environmental policy
court efficiency
liability sharing
regulation
incomplete information
JEL: 
D82
G32
K13
K32
Q28
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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