Contract design that motivates parties to invest and trade more efficiently occurs primarily in thin markets … characterized by bespoke, bilateral agreements between commercial parties. In that environment, the cost of producing each contract …, more efficient production of contract terms occurs in thick, multilateral markets where parties can realize the scale …

clause is present in practically every contract across a wide range of industries and, in particular, it appears in deals as … economic value of the contract to both parties by reducing uncertainty and litigation risk. We posit that different levels of … that language verbatim into the contract together with other redundant and obsolete terms including, on occasion, terms …

indeterminate meaning present opportunities for strategic behavior well after a contract has been concluded. This linguistic … boilerplate language. Using the infamous case of NML v. Argentina, we show how traditional contract doctrine, which uses a model …

Despite recent advances in our understanding of contracting behavior, economic contract theory has yet to identify the … principal causes and effects of contract breach. In this Essay, I argue that opportunism is a primary explanation for why …;” a behavior that more accurately describes the vexing problems courts face in rooting out strategic behavior in contract …

Market damages - the difference between the market price for goods or services at the time of breach and the contract … price - are the best default rule whenever parties trade in thick markets: they induce parties to contract efficiently and … the breached services but instead are restricted to the market delta. As a result, too few buyers contract ex ante for the …

Economic contract theory postulates two obstacles to complete contracts: high transaction costs and high enforcement … contract design in a world of costly litigation. We examine the efficiency of investment at the front-end and back-end of the …. When the parties agree to specific terms(or rules), they invest more at the front-end to specify proxies in their contract …

The central task in developing a plausible normative theory of contract law is to specify the appropriate role of the … for non performance are prescribed in the contract. In the case of incomplete (or relational) contracts, however, parties … have incentives to breach by exploiting gaps in the contract. Making the verifiable terms of the contract legally …

foundations of a law merchant for our time. Firms contract to maximize expected surplus and the state permits markets to function … regulate their contracting behavior. A contract law for firms would differ in three major respects from current contract law …. First, such a law would have far fewer default rules and standards than current contract law contains. The high level of …

Contract today increasingly links entrepreneurial innovations to the efforts and finance necessary to transform ideas … into value. In this Chapter, we describe the match between a form of contract that "braids" formal and informal contractual … contract have emerged first in markets, and that the common law, and the theory of contract, then play catch-up. Between the …