Duress in Contracts : An Economic Analysis

This paper is forthcoming as a chapter in Contract Law and Economics, ed. Gerrit de Geest (Cheltenham: Elgar 2009) [Elgar Encyclopedia of Law and Economics 2nd ed.] and its goal is to provide an overview of the economic analyses of contractual duress. The focus is on distinctive features of the economic perspective on the duress doctrine, as developed in the theoretical literature of law and economics. Before discussing the results of economic analysis, the legal background and some non-economic theories of duress are briefly presented