Limited Liability and Imperfect Information—On the Existence of Safety Equilibria Under Products Liability Law

In the literature on the economics of tort law the Cournot-Nash equilibrium concept has been undisputed. In particular, the existence of a Cournot-Nash safety equilibrium has been taken for granted, given the usual convexity assumptions. In this paper a simple model of strict liability with the defence of contributory negligence is considered. Liability is assumed to be limited. It is shown that for a certain range of liability limits no Cournot-Nash safety equilibrium in pure strategies exists. A mixed strategy equilibrium exists but it turns out to be suboptimal.     

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING POLICY AND AMERICAN IDEAS: OLD PROBLEMS AND EMERGING PROGRAMS

The federal government has, relative to other areas of social welfare program activity, been especially slow in the development of employment and training policy. The reasons for this can be found in terms of an understanding of the most basic American political and economic ideas. The history of federal initiatives in employment and training policy is traced briefly and the impact of certain American political ideas on this pattern of development is analyzed. Particular attention is given to the issues of coordinating of employment and training programs and the increased role of the state and private sector in designing and managing such programs. It is suggested that in light of certain historic American political patterns, there might be costs to moving in commonly sought after ways that are not readily evident.     

Milosevic on Trial

International Law is argued to have a “civilized” component, but viewing the actions of supposed “civilized” states, it is hard to agree. An example is the case of Slobodan Milosevic, the former head of Yugoslavia, who was put on trial (until his death in The Hague) for acts, which were in fact committed by many, including heads of state who are not subject to similar charges let alone trials. A close examination of the articles on which this purported international law rests reveals serious doubts about the legal basis for the trial, while agreeing that the acts of Milosevic might well have been morally reprehensible.Emeritus Distinguished Professor of International Law     

Specialization and seriousness during adult criminal careers

Crime-type switching between arrests is examined for tendencies by adult offenders to specialize in crime types or to escalate in seriousness as offending continues. The adult offenders examined display higher levels of specialization than have been previously reported for juveniles; among adult offenders, those who remain criminally active until older ages are also more specialized. Also, there is some evidence of trends toward a worsening of offending: for selected crime types, adult offending becomes more specialized and escalates in seriousness for white offenders. However, similar trends are not observed for black adult offenders.Work on this paper was completed while at the School of Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie Mellon University.     

Regulating Quality of Care in Nursing Homes in Hong Kong: A Social-Ecological Investigation

A social-ecological model aided by an adversarial methodology was employed to study the regulation of private nursing homes in Hong Kong over a five-year period. Specifically the study addresses the way quality of care and its definitions changed in response to shifting socio-political-economic conditions. The study began when only 2 percent of the industry was licensable. It was found that an initial period of harmful capture was replaced by a period of cooperation between government and the industry, following increased resource flow into the system that made it possible for desirable trade-offs to occur between the two parties. Six-and-a-half years after the introduction of the regulatory ordinance, all homes in the market achieved licensure status.