First-Party Versus Third-Party Compensation for Automobile Accidents: Evidence From Canada

Insurance regimes for compensating losses arising from automobile accidents vary by jurisdiction, ranging from a pure tort system to a pure no-fault system, with both systems having well-documented benefits and costs. The majority of published research focuses on the benefits and costs associated with the compensation for bodily injury. This article extends the existing literature by examining the differences between first-party and third-party recovery for both physical damage and bodily injury losses in Canada. Our comparison of auto insurance costs per insured vehicle suggests that government-run, pure no-fault provinces have lower average costs than provinces with private tort and modified no-fault. Lower costs arise from the elimination of tort costs associated with noneconomic damages, lower claims settlement costs due to first-party compensation, and scales of economy arising from monopoly power. The second goal of the article is to examine the impact of first- versus third-party compensation on the settlement of property damage claims. We analyze the claim files of a large insurer that operates within both a traditional tort (third-party) environment and a first-party recovery environment for property damage. We find that in a first-party recovery regime claims are settled sooner, settlement costs are lower, and not-at-fault drivers are compensated at a higher rate than in the traditional tort environment.     

试论生态税赋的经济激励--兼论西部生态补偿的政府行为

课征生态税能使生产达到最适量,为生态补偿提供稳定的资金渠道,促进企业技术创新,推动环境资源产权制度的创新。然而对于生态服务的交易,市场是无法完成的,必须由政府干预来进行,最终通过转移支付来补偿生态建设者。     

TORT REFORM AND MASS TORTS: TOBACCO AS AN EXAMPLE

Abstract: As data regarding the U.S. tort liability system become more refined and dependable, evidence of the importance of mass torts is emerging. Much of the impetus for and debate surrounding tort reform, however, has focused on individual tort claims. The purpose of this research is to consider the unique characteristics of mass torts, particularly those that generate from latent injuries, with regard to the likely effect of currently popular tort reforms. The various tobacco litigation efforts are employed as mechanisms within which to undertake this consideration. The results indicate that care in designing tort reforms is necessary if modifications are to be effective in reducing the litigation costs associated with mass torts. Furthermore, research into the social benefit of various system structures currently being debated is warranted. The risk management and insurance community is interested in the debate and related reforms, both for purposes of reducing costs and for the purpose of increasing certainty of liability outcomes.     

交强险立法与实践的两个法律问题辨析——以侵权责任法律关系为视角

交强险倍受争议的所谓“无责赔付”原则,其依据是《道路交通安全法》第76条。道交法第76条规定在强制保险限额内不问侵权责避免任归属而径由保险埋单,属逻辑颠倒,片面强调交强险的社会救济功能,摒弃责任保险的基本逻辑,实为交强险诸多问题的根源。《侵权责任法》对此未有实质改进,失去立法矫正机会。实践中无辜受害车辆反而多赔肇事车辆...     

Non‐compliance in Executive Compensation Disclosure: the Brazilian Experience

We examine the determinants and consequences of firms’ choice not to comply with a new executive compensation disclosure regulation. We exploit a unique feature of Brazilian markets, where a change in the regulation of executive compensation disclosure could arguably lead to personal security‐related costs for executives. This major reform in executive compensation disclosure in Brazil became effective in December 2009. While some firms complied with the change in regulation, other firms explicitly refused to comply fully with the regulation by using a court injunction. After controlling for firm‐specific characteristics and both social and economic inequality measures, we find that the degree of criminality in the state in which the firm is headquartered (a proxy for security‐related costs) and the level of CEO compensation are important determinants of a firm's decision not to fully disclose executive compensation information. We also show that firms which do not fully comply with the regulation face costs in the form of higher bid‐ask spreads, suggesting investors are leery of the decision not to comply with the regulation. We discuss the potential implications of our results in the context of executive compensation disclosure reform.     

财政体制与区际利益补偿:联结、影响与协调

区际利益补偿,是近年来中央积极推进的治理机制,其建立在区域外部性理论基础之上.通过考察外部性的治理方式可知,"庇古税"模式和"科斯模型"均具有理论可行性.而选择何种模型,往往与一国之财政体制密切相关.我国基于现行财政体制所选择的"纵向转移支付",是一种不完整的"庇古税"模式.这一现实决定了目前所试点的区际利益补偿,只是对既有责任逻辑的另一种加持,导致区际利益补偿存在着补偿动力不足、补偿标准低下、补偿范围狭小等问题,应当回归到权利思维逻辑中.而要构建权利逻辑下的区际利益补偿,需要对财政体制进行改革,包括事权的细化以明确补偿范围;财权(力)的差异化配置以增强补偿能力;转移支付制度的多维度完善以规范补偿体系,最终构建起"中央与地方"之间的三角财政关系.在这一基础之上,区际利益补偿才能调整适应理论界所设计的权利化补偿机制.     

How people pay: Evidence from grocery store data

Empirical evidence based on grocery store transaction data shows that consumer payment behavior at the point of sale is important for understanding models of money demand. There are statistically significant effects of transaction costs, opportunity costs, and product characteristics on the choice of payment instrument, which then, in turn, affect money demand. These results emphasize the overlap between the work of empirical researchers in payment choice and theoretical modelers of monetary economics and should inform both literatures.     

会计师事务所侵权责任抗辩事由研究

抗辩既包括程序法意义上的抗辩,也包括实体法意义上的抗辩,抗辩事由属于实体法上的抗辩。根据侵权责任的三层结构,会计师事务所侵权责任抗辩事由可按照客观构成要件阻却事由(不存在侵权行为、损害事实和因果关系)——违法性构成要件阻却事由(过失相抵、受害人故意和第三人过错)——主观构成要件阻却事由(不存在过错)三个层次,依次展开。在前一抗辩事由成立时,会计师事务所即无侵权责任,不必考虑后一抗辩事由;只有在前一抗辩事由不成立时,才须考虑后一抗辩事由。     

先行支付制度法理分析

从社会保险法理看,社会保险基金对第三人侵权造成的保险损害承担保险给付义务,在履行保险给付义务之后,保险人依法获得保险代位权;工伤保险基金对未缴纳保险费的单位职工工伤损害承担保险赔偿责任.我国《社会保险法》确立的先行支付制度,否定相关社会保险基金在该情形下的保险赔偿义务.这不仅冲击了社会保险法理,也违背了社会保险法的基本原则,而且给司法实践造成一定困扰.明确相关保险基金先行支付义务和求偿权的实质,是该制度正常运用的基础.     

Accounting rules? Stock buybacks and stock options: Additional evidence

This paper finds that CEO stock options influence the choice, amount, and timing of funds distributed as a buyback. These results favor a managerial opportunism motive for buybacks over other theories and support two key research expectations – that buybacks impose option-induced agency costs on outside shareholders, and that managers benefit from weak governance and unclear accounting in this choice. CEOs increase their insider selling following a buyback, which also supports a managerial opportunism perspective. Once we control for these agency factors, we find no evidence that buyback activity associates reliably with EPS accretion from the reduction in common shares. We conclude that the popular use of stock buybacks as a form of cash distribution derives significantly from a strong contemporaneous relation between buybacks and CEOs’ use of stock options as additional compensation.     

A Reexamination of the Costs of Firm Commitment and Best Efforts IPOs

Ritter [14] documents that best efforts IPOs are, on average, more costly to issue than firm commitment IPOs. This paper explains the phenomenon. Two component costs of going public are analyzed: underpricing and underwriter compensation. The model, based on a disagreement about firm value between underwriters and issuers, shows that underpricing is higher for firms using best efforts contracts as these firms, on average, are more speculative. Underwriter compensation is hypothesized to be higher for firms using best efforts contracts because of the high costs of market making for these firms in the aftermarket and the high distribution costs associated with the high risk of a failed offer. Empirical tests strongly support the propositions.     

Informational Cascade in the Insurance Market

We develop an informational cascade model based on Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer, and Welch (1992) with applications to the insurance market. We investigate the existence of cascades and the effects of public information on cascades. We apply the results to insurance markets to explain how catastrophic events may lead to demand increases, how loss shocks may lead to insurance cycles, and how the heterogeneity of policyholders affects the choice of limited tort auto insurance in Pennsylvania.     

Cost Savings from Check 21 Electronic Payment Legislation

Electronic payment legislation permitted an initially paper substitute digital image of a check, and later the electronic digital image of a check, to be processed and presented for payment on a same‐day basis. By shifting to electronic collection and presentment, Federal Reserve per item check processing costs fell by over 70%, reducing estimated overall U.S. payment system costs by $1.16 billion in 2010. Payment collection times and associated float fell dramatically for collecting banks and payees with consequent additional savings in firm working capital costs of perhaps $1.37 billion and indebted consumer benefits of $0.64 billion.     

Investment and Monetary Policy: Learning and Determinacy of Equilibrium

We explore determinacy and expectational stability (learnability) of rational expectations equilibrium (REE) in New Keynesian (NK) models that include capital. Using a consistent calibration across three different models—labor‐only, firm‐specific capital, or an economy‐wide rental market for capital, we provide a clear picture of when REE is determinate and learnable and when it is not under a variety of monetary policy rules. Our findings make a case for greater optimism concerning the use of such rules in NK models with capital. While Bullard and Mitra’s (2002, 2007) findings for the labor‐only NK model do not always extend to models with capital, we show that determinate and learnable REE can be achieved in NK models with capital if there is (i) plausible capital adjustment costs, (ii) some weight given to output in the policy rule, and/or (iii) a policy of interest rate smoothing.     

Product Quality and Payment Policy

This paper provides a theoretical explanation for the choice of payment terms under which a company sells its products. In our model, these terms are chosen to permit sellers or buyers to specialize at repairing defects if they are equally well-informed about quality or if one has significantly lower repair costs than the other. Otherwise, the terms are chosen to signal product quality. We also develop the empirical implications of this theory by predicting a seller's choice of payment terms based on the characteristics of its product market.     

Retail payments: New contributions,empirical results,and unanswered questions

We offer a selected survey of retail payments and suggest areas where additional research would prove useful. After summarizing eight papers presented at a recent Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway) payment conference and published in this volume, we show how they, and many of the other papers presented there, have contributed to the payments literature. We also illustrate how institutional and other differences across countries led to different payment arrangements historically which now, due to technological innovation affecting bank costs, have made payment arrangements across countries more homogeneous.     

论环境侵权责任中的恢复原状费用

我国法将传统大陆民法中的“恢复原状”作了技术性限缩,未将恢复原状费用囊括在内,且常将其与金钱赔偿混为一谈。虽然在多数情况下,环境侵权中的恢复原状费用和金钱赔偿在适用效果上均指向金额的计算,但两者性质相去甚远,恢复原状的金钱给付源自自身的行为给付色彩,而这点常被忽略。依据损害赔偿规则,费用支付完毕在某种程度上意味着责任终结,如将恢复费用定性为金钱赔偿的话,费用支付完毕即风险转移完毕,这与环境损害责任所欲达到的救济理念多有抵牾。鉴于此,应在明晰恢复原状费用请求权性质,且与金钱赔偿作严格区分的基础上,重新对恢复原状费用进行界定。具体可参照《民法典》第1235条对请求范围进行再确认,将虚拟治理成本法作为费用计算的标准。最后,从可否自由处分、追偿问题等方面补足适用之疑虑。     

The Legal and Economic Evolution of Workers Compensation: Prospects for Enhancing Choice in the System

ABSTRACT: Workers compensation in the United States has been designed as a no-fault system that provides comprehensive medical and income benefits to employees with work-related injuries. Under its no-fault concept and the exclusive remedy doctrine, injured workers relinquish the right to sue their employer in tort in exchange for prescribed, guaranteed benefits that are paid promptly without protracted disputes. However, there is considerable evidence of increasing litigation in and outside the system that is undermining its no-fault principles and siphoning resources away from the efficient delivery of benefits to injured workers. This article reviews the legal and economic developments that are reshaping workers compensation and the threats they pose. The authors argue for a comprehensive reexamination of the structure of the system to resolve the conflicts among its stakeholders and improve its efficiency. Specifically, the authors explore several potential measures that would enhance worker and employer choice to reconcile their interests while restoring the nofault foundation of the system.     

An empirical investigation of procurement contract structures

This article presents a model of procurement contracting with asymmetric cost information and investigates whether two of the model's predictions are consistent with actual contracts between hospitals and California's Medicaid program. The article first tests for the presence of a fixed-price payment region where Medicaid's payments are independent of hospitals' actual (but unobservable) production costs and then tests whether the size of the fixed-price region depends upon expectations about hospitals' costs. To conduct these tests, the article must first estimate hospitals' "unobservable" costs attributable to Medicaid patients. The article finds evidence of a fixed-price region but cannot confirm that the size of the fixed-price region depends upon expectations about hospitals' costs.     

Information asymmetry and international strategic alliances

This paper examines how information asymmetry affects cross-border strategic alliance formation by US firms over the period 2000–2008. We construct a measure, information costs, based on both geographical distance and the proportion of worldwide GDP the partner’s home country represents. Consistent with our expectations, we find an inverse association between information costs and cross-border strategic alliances. When considering the proportion of alliances formed with publicly quoted overseas partners, we find this is unaffected by the level of information costs but rather the level of stock market development, tax rate and general economic conditions. Information costs are, however, significantly negatively related to alliances with overseas private organizations. Our results offer clear support for the on-going importance of information asymmetry in corporate decision making.