Journal
RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
Volume 43, Issue 1, Pages 51-77Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-2171.2012.00158.x
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [R24 HD047879] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Most U.S. states have enacted JSL reform, the move from a regime of joint and several liability (JSL) that allows plaintiffs to claim full recovery from any one of multiple defendants to one where defendants are held liable only for the harm they cause. Contrary to previous theoretical work, we show that JSL reform can increase precaution by judgment proof agent by giving deep pockets an incentive to reduce their own liability by bringing judgment-proof agents into court. This result can help explain our empirical findings showing that JSL reform reduces death rates (and hence increase precaution) for many types of accidents. Together, these results highlight the role that litigation costs and judgment-proof agents play in the functioning of the American tort system.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available