This paper examines auditor liability rules under imperfect information, costly litigation and risk averse auditors. A negligence rule fails in such a setting, because in equilibrium auditors will deviate with positive probability from any given standard. It is shown that strict liability outperforms negligence with respect to risk allocation, and the probability that a desired level of care is...

This paper considers the effect of tort liability reforms on medical malpractice and general liability insurance markets. The primary reforms analyzed were damages caps and other liability reforms. These reforms decreased premiums, reduced losses, and improved the profitability of insurance companies based on evidence using detailed individual company by state data from the National Association...

While in several jurisdictions corporate criminal liability is accepted, in Brazil the maxim still prevails that corporations cannot commit crimes. In common law countries the attribution of criminal liability to corporations was developed more than a century ago, and the concept of corporate criminal liability has been extensively discussed. This work is an attempt to look into the common law ...

In response to claims that the threat of environmental liability under the Superfund law deters the acquisition of potentially contaminated sites (or “brownfields”) for redevelopment, the federal government has adopted programs to protect purchasers from liability. This protection may be unwarranted, however, if sellers can simply adjust property prices downward to compensate buyers for this li...

This article examines university liability created by internship and consulting relationships. Business clients participating in outreach relationships formulate performance expectations based on perceptions of experience and / or qualifications. Clients assign tasks accordingly, and the university incurs liability that is conditioned by business clients’ expectations. Substantial liability is ...

We evaluate the impact of joint-liability incentives in the classroom using a randomized field experiment. The instructor design groups of three students in the classroom and provides a premium to their homework's grade only if all three members of the group accomplish some requirements. We find that joint-liability incentives impact positively on the grades accomplished in homework and midterm...

Although I hate to begin a serious article on an important Supreme Court case this way, the Court’s recent decision in Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States1 reminds me of nothing so much as the old Woody Allen line that ‘‘[s]ex without love is an empty experience . . . but as empty experiences go, it’s one of the best.’’2 This is because for all practical purposes, Andersen is a meaningless dec...

(a) there are certain areas where the guidelines are silent or virtually silent. This is particularly notable in relation to the economic assessment of mergers in local markets and in bidding markets. These issues are described further at Section 5 below. We would welcome an extension of the guidelines to deal with these issues, which regularly impact on merger assessment by the OFT and the CC;...

The NanoEL is an Erasmus LLP project about sharing technology and human resources. Knowledge and information made available at project partner’s universities, in order to develop teaching material in the form of courses or modules within the interdisciplinary field of nanotechnology.