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Does Product Liability Make Us Safer?, W. Kip Viscusi
Does Product Liability Make Us Safer?, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Product liability law is intended to create an environment that fosters safer products. However, this law often has adverse consequences. Some of the problems stem from the inherent nature of product risk decisions and the function of tort liability, while others may derive from individuals’ cognitive limitations and inability to think properly about balancing risk and cost. This paper examines both types of problems and summarizes relevant academic literature.
Individual Rationality, Hazard Warnings, And The Foundations Of Tort Law, W. Kip Viscusi
Individual Rationality, Hazard Warnings, And The Foundations Of Tort Law, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
If all people were fully rational and cognizant of all the risks they faced, then they would always select an efficient level of safety in all their activities and other choices. Thus people would trade off the potential benefits of the risky behavior against the costs, including the risks to life and limb, and select the activity and product mix that best promoted their welfare. In such a world, there would not only be no need for hazard warnings, but there also would be no need for liability of any kind. Purchasers of hazardous products, for example, would always value …