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Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Law
Effectiveness Of The Epa's Regulatory Enforcement: The Case Of Industrial Effluent Standards, W. Kip Viscusi, Wesley A. Magat
Effectiveness Of The Epa's Regulatory Enforcement: The Case Of Industrial Effluent Standards, W. Kip Viscusi, Wesley A. Magat
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The EPA water pollution regulations-the focus of this study- represent an interesting departure from past patterns of regulatory failure. First, the nature of the regulations-discharge limits-relates directly to the policy objective of controlling pollution, and there is no potential for offsetting behavioral responses. If the pollution standards are binding and enforced, they should improve water quality. Second, the enforcement effort is so extensive that enforcement should affect firms' compliance. In the pulp and paper industry, which we will analyze, the EPA averages roughly one inspection annually per major pollution source. In addition, firms are required to file monthly discharge monitoring …
Sources Of Inconsistency In Societal Responses To Health Risks, W. Kip Viscusi
Sources Of Inconsistency In Societal Responses To Health Risks, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Society has until recently devoted insufficient attention to the long-run environmental problems that we face, including acid rain and the greenhouse effect. Our inaction with respect to these risks can hardly be characterized as a rational response or an overreaction to risk. There are three possible explanations of such diverse phenomena. First, one could simply dismiss this behavior as being the result of inconsistent and irrational behavior. Second, one could devise ad hoc explanations of why individuals underreact in some instances and overreact in others. A third possibility is to reconcile this seemingly inconsistent behavior with a consistent theoretical framework. …
The Performance Of Liability Insurance In States With Different Products-Liability Statutes, W. Kip Viscusi
The Performance Of Liability Insurance In States With Different Products-Liability Statutes, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The liability crisis of the mid-1980s has led to an extensive reexamination of the liability system. A number of explanations have been offered for the substantial increase in insurance premiums and, in some cases, a decline in the availability of insurance. These include stimulation of the underwriting cycle by a decline in interest rates, collusion among insurance firms, rising tort costs, and uncertainty with respect to the liability burden.' Most observers, however, also point to changes in tort law itself. For example, plaintiffs may now have a more favorable environment for obtaining an award and, if they are successful, they …
Utility Functions That Depend On Health Status: Estimates And Economic Implications, W. Kip Viscusi, William N. Evans
Utility Functions That Depend On Health Status: Estimates And Economic Implications, W. Kip Viscusi, William N. Evans
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Taylor's series and logarithmic estimates of health state-dependent utility functions both imply that job injuries reduce one's utility and marginal utility of income, thus rejecting the monetary loss equivalent formulation. Injury valuations have unitary income elasticity, and the valuation of non-incremental risk changes and effects of base risks follow economic predictions.
Wading Through The Muddle Of Risk-Utility Analysis, W. Kip Viscusi
Wading Through The Muddle Of Risk-Utility Analysis, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The original emphasis of risk-utility analysis on the need for balanced decisions with respect to product liability is a correct and fundamental principle. Moreover, many traditional factors that have been considered are legitimate, but they did not provide a framework for comprehensive and consistent risk-utility judgments. The development in this Article of a series of economic formulations of the risk-utility test is intended to establish a sounder basis for a products liability defect doctrine.
Treatment Of The Mentally Disabled: Rethinking The Community-First Idea, Christopher Slobogin
Treatment Of The Mentally Disabled: Rethinking The Community-First Idea, Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In the past several decades the treatment, habilitation and education of the mentally disabled has been heavily influenced by what could be called the "community-first" movement. This movement which encompasses such developments as deinstitutionalization, the least restrictive alternative doctrine, normalization, mainstreaming,and outpatient commitment-is based on the idea that, in caring for the mentally disabled, we should favor placement in the community rather than in institutions segregated from mainstream populations. The community-first idea is not unanimously supported. But Congress, many courts, and countless advocacy groups composed of lawyers, mental health professionals and laypeople have rallied behind the community first standard as …
The Eleventh Amendment And Stare Decisis: Overruling Hans V. Louisiana, Suzanna Sherry
The Eleventh Amendment And Stare Decisis: Overruling Hans V. Louisiana, Suzanna Sherry
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
There is currently a dispute raging about the meaning of the Eleventh Amendment, which protects states from suits in federal court. The language of that amendment appears to deny federal jurisdiction only over suits brought against states by citizens of another state, but the Court, since its 1890 decision in Hans v Louisiana, has interpreted the amendment to bar all federal suits against states, including those brought by a state's own citizens. Thus, under current doctrine, the Eleventh Amendment bars all suits brought against a state in federal court, regardless of the citizenship of the plaintiff or the basis for …
Hedonic Damages For Wrongful Death: Are Tortfeasors Getting Away With Murder?, Erin O'Connor
Hedonic Damages For Wrongful Death: Are Tortfeasors Getting Away With Murder?, Erin O'Connor
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This note argues that to deter negligent behavior adequately, tortfeasors should be held liable for what may be the most substantial cost they impose on accident victims-"hedonic damages," or the loss of the value of life that results from premature death. Part I argues that courts should assess hedonic damages against tortfeasors to provide enough incentives for the tortfeasor to take the proper amount of precautions to prevent future accidents and losses. Part II argues that courts can closely approximate the appropriate measure of hedonic damages by using economic empirical studies that seek to ascertain the value of a life …
Education Match And Job Match, Joni Hersch
Education Match And Job Match, Joni Hersch
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Using a new data set, this paper gives evidence in support of the intuitive notion that overqualified workers are less satisfied with their jobs and are more likely to quit. However, training time is inversely related to overqualification, which suggests why such seeming mismatches occur and may in fact be optimal.
Stargazing: The Alternative Minimum Tax For Individuals And Future Tax Reform, Beverly I. Moran
Stargazing: The Alternative Minimum Tax For Individuals And Future Tax Reform, Beverly I. Moran
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The article uses the provisions of the Alternative Minimum Tax in an attempt to predict the course of future tax reform.
Employment Discrimination: An Overview Of The 1989 Supreme Court Term, Suzanna Sherry
Employment Discrimination: An Overview Of The 1989 Supreme Court Term, Suzanna Sherry
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Many of you have seen or heard in the media much discussion about last term's employment discrimination cases. Indeed, last term there was an extraordinary amount of activity in the Supreme Court on employment discrimination. The Court decided four separate cases under Title VII1 (which prohibits employment discrimination) and two cases under related laws. One of those concerned the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, and the other involved 42 U.S.C. § 1981, which prohibits discrimination in contractual relations on the basis of race. With all this activity, it does seem like a lot of new law. In fact, however, …
Afterword: Voices And Violence-- A Dialogue, Ellen Wright Clayton, Jay Clayton
Afterword: Voices And Violence-- A Dialogue, Ellen Wright Clayton, Jay Clayton
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
When organizing this Symposium on the topic of "Law, Literature, and Social Change," we asked whether current trends in literature and in literary, social, and legal theory actually could play a role in bringing about social change. The authors gathered at this Symposium responded to this question in very different ways. As we read their articles and comments, however, and as we talked about their various approaches, some common themes began to emerge. Narrative seemed important. The way people split public life off from private experience came up frequently. But violence seemed to be on everyone's mind.
Do Smokers Underestimate Risks?, W. Kip Viscusi
Do Smokers Underestimate Risks?, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This paper uses a national survey of 3,119 individuals to examine the effect of lung cancer risk perceptions on smoking activity. Both smokers and nonsmokers greatly overestimate the lung cancer risk of cigarette smoking, and the extent of the overestimation is much greater than the extent of underestimation. These risk perceptions in turn significantly reduce the probability of smoking, as suggested by an economic model of risky consumption decisions. Cigarette excise taxes in effect endow individuals with additional risk perceptions comparable to their current assessed lung cancer risks