We use a principal-agent framework to reexamine the implications of the negligence and strict liability rules when the tort-feasor is an agency. We assume a unilateral care situation and consider both the cases of moral hazard and of adverse selection. In both instances the negligence rule is...

This paper analyzes the efficient use of information in an agency relationship with moral hazard, when parties are risk-neutral. We show that, given an arbitrary information system, all relevant information from a mechanism-design point of view can be summarized by a binary statistic. We then...

We argue that the common-law standard of proof, given the rules of evidence, does not minimize expected error as usually argued in the legal literature, but may well be efficient from the standpoint of providing maximal incentives for socially desirable behavior. By contrast, civil law's higher...

We debate the contribution of the economic analysis of legal procedures, with a special regard for the debate between inquisitorial and accusatory systems and the judge?s role in the course of the procedure. The article proposes a presentation of the literature and develops specific models...

We provide an integral condition for the ranking of general information systems in the agency problem. The condition has a straightforward economic interpretation in terms of the sensitivity of a cumulative distribution with respect to the agent's effort. The proposed criterion is shown to be...

We study the problem of deterring undesirable behavior in a moral hazard framework with risk averse individuals, noisy information and costly sanctions. We find that, if sanctions are a pure loss, a utilitarian society should use a bang-bang penalty scheme satisfying the maximum penalty...

Cet article analyse les propriétés de complémentarité et de substituabilité entre systèmes de surveillance et mécanismes incitatifs dans une relation principal-agent, lorsque les parties sont neutres à l'égard du risque et que l'agent fait face à une contrainte de solvabilité. À...

This paper analyzes the cost and incentive properties of the standard of proof for a finding of negligence. In common law, the usual standard is for courts to decide on the basis of a so-called balance of probabilities or preponderance of the evidence. We show that, if producing information...

Cet article analyse l'utilisation efficace de l'information dans un problème de principal agent avec risque moral et neutralité au risque. On montre que, pour un système arbitraire d'information, toute l'information pertinente d'un point de vue incitatif peut être résumée par une...