We examine the effect of "split-award" statutes (wherein the state shares a punitive damages award) on equilibrium settlements and the incentives to go to trial. Splitaward statutes lower settlement amounts and the likelihood of trial, as both parties act to cut out the state. We analyze the...

This paper develops a two-stage model of product design and safety signaling incorporating a parametric liability specification in a monopoly context. In the first stage, the firm engages in research and development in order to determine the safety of its product. We model the research and...

We briefly review two basic models of settlement bargaining based on concepts from information economics and game theory. We then discuss how these models have been generalized to address issues that arise when there are more than two litigants with related cases. Linkages between cases can...

We examine the interplay of imperfect competition and incomplete information in the context of price competition among firms producing horizontally- and vertically-differentiated substitute products. We find that incomplete information about vertical quality (e.g., consumer satisfaction) that is...

"Most-favored-nation" (hereafter, MFN) clauses have been used in analyses of international trade, durable goods monopoly pricing, and franchise contracting to address a repeat player's time-inconsistency problem. Recent work by Spier (forthcoming and 2002) has extended this perspective to the...

This Handbook chapter provides a brief review of selected settlement bargaining models in some areas where new work is developing and where additional work is likely to yield yet further important results. This work has focused on what might be thought of as the environment of the settlement...

We extend consideration of cumulative harm in products liability to the case of bilateral care. For this specification, the level of care and the level of output chosen by the firm are inextricably interrelated, and different liability regimes yield different combinations of care and output. As...

This Handbook chapter provides a brief review of selected settlement bargaining models in some areas where new work is developing and where additional work is likely to yield yet further important results. This work has focused on what might be thought of as the environment of the settlement...