This paper investigates the optimal management of a firm faced with a long-term liability that occurs at a random date. Three issues are analysed: the optimal dividend policy; optimal expenditure on safety to delay the occurrence of the liability; and the optimal liquidation date of the firm. An owner faced with dynamic unlimited liability never liquidates and therefore accumulates capital to t...

Qualified immunity from civil liability exists for acts of disaster mental health (DMH) practitioners responding to disasters or acts of terrorism. This article reviews current legal regimens dictating civil liability for potentially wrongful acts of DMH professionals and volunteers responding to disasters. Criteria are proposed to inform determinations of civil liability for DMH workers in dis...

We compare the performance of liability rules for managing environmental disasters when third parties are harmed and cannot always be compensated. A firm can invest in safety to reduce the likelihood of accidents. The firm’s investment is unobservable to authorities. Externality and asymmetric information call for public intervention to define rules aimed at increasing prevention. We determine ...

We develop a model of repeated microcredit lending to study how group size affects optimal group-lending contracts with joint liability. In the setting being studied, a benevolent lender provides microcredit to a group of borrowers to invest in projects. The outcome of each risky project is not observable by the lender; therefore, if some of the borrowers default on their loan repayments, the l...

This Note argues that the optional inclusion of the development risks defense in Member State legislation undermines the Products Liability Directive by impeding harmonization of products liability laws in the Community. Part I sets forth the background and content of the Products Liability Directive. Part II discusses the implementation of the Products Liability Directive in Member State legis...

Abstract. Given a doubling measure μ on R, it is a classical result of harmonic analysis that Calderón-Zygmund operators which are bounded in L(μ) are also of weak type (1, 1). Recently it has been shown that the same result holds if one substitutes the doubling condition on μ by a mild growth condition on μ. In this paper another proof of this result is given. The proof is very close in spirit...

A change in subtask order in the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm increases the effect of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) on the second response. We used a paradigm with cued, randomly determined subtask order to test the hypothesis that this SOA by order switch overadditivity reflects order control, via "copying" stimulus order. In Experiments 1a and 1b, overadditivity was eviden...

This article focuses on a specific aspect of liability insurance that arises out of the latent nature of certain insured events. In particular, it is concerned with the fact that in the interval between the original tort and the claim for damages the standard of care applied by the courts may change. This is the problem of retroactive liability. The article begins by briefly reviewing the legal...