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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Balanced Prescription For More Effective Environmental Regulations, W. Kip Viscusi
A Balanced Prescription For More Effective Environmental Regulations, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Government agencies increasingly base the structure and approval of environmental regulations on a benefit-cost test. For regulations that pass this test, total benefits exceed total costs. Under a benefit-cost framework, the degree of regulatory stringency is set at an economically efficient level whereby the tightness of the regulation is increased up to the point where the incremental benefits equal the incremental costs. Setting regulatory standards to achieve the efficient degree of pollution control does not fully discourage entry into polluting industries, provide compensation to those harmed by pollution, or establish meaningful incentives for effective enforcement. This article proposes that the …
Are College Presidents Like Football Coaches? Evidence From Their Employment Contracts, Randall Thomas, Lawrence R. Van Horn
Are College Presidents Like Football Coaches? Evidence From Their Employment Contracts, Randall Thomas, Lawrence R. Van Horn
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
College presidents and football coaches are frequently criticized for their high compensation. In this paper, we argue that these criticisms are unmerited, as the markets for both college presidents and football coaches exhibit properties consistent with a competitive labor market. Both parties compensation varies in sensible ways related to the size of the programs they manage, as well as their potential for value creation. Successful college presidents and football coaches can greatly increase the value of their schools well beyond the amount they receive in compensation. If these higher education executives' compensation is the result of a competitive labor market, …
Implementing The New Ecosystem Services Mandate Of The Section 404 Compensatory Mitigation Program--A Catalyst For Advancing Science And Policy, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman, Iris Goodman
Implementing The New Ecosystem Services Mandate Of The Section 404 Compensatory Mitigation Program--A Catalyst For Advancing Science And Policy, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman, Iris Goodman
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
On April 10, 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly published final regulations defining standards and procedures for authorizing compensatory mitigation of impacts to aquatic resources the Corps permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (Section 404). Prior to the rule, the Section 404 compensatory mitigation program had been administered under a mish-mash of guidances, inter-agency memoranda, and other policy documents issued over the span of 17 years. A growing tide of policy and science scholarship criticized the program's administration as not accounting for the potential redistribution of ecosystem services that …
Disentangling Deregulatory Takings, Jim Rossi, Susan Ackerman-Rose
Disentangling Deregulatory Takings, Jim Rossi, Susan Ackerman-Rose
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Constitutional takings protections, such as those in the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, create a potential for state liability for changes in regulatory policy by governments. This Article critiques takings jurisprudence in the context of two infrastructure investment issues: the stranded cost problem facing United States utility industries, which has given rise to claims of compensation for deregulatory takings; and the development of standards to protect direct foreign investment in developing countries. In both contexts, traditional legal doctrines do not adequately provide for the type of remedy sought so courts are in need of standards to assist them …
The Metrics Of Constitutional Amendments: And Why Proposed Environmental Quality Amendments Don't Measure Up, J.B. Ruhl
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article builds a model of federal constitutional amendments using proposed environmental quality rights amendments as a case study. I argue that environmental quality rights amendments are unworkable and violate the underpinnings of federal constitutional design.
Compensating Differentials For Gender-Specific Job Injury Risks, Joni Hersch
Compensating Differentials For Gender-Specific Job Injury Risks, Joni Hersch
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Women have largely been excluded from analyses of compensating differentials for job risk since they are predominantly employed in safer, white-collar occupations. New data reveal that their injury experience is considerable. One-third of the total injury and illness cases with days away from work accrue to female workers. Adjusted for employment, women are 71 percent as likely as men to experience an injury or illness. As one would predict on theoretical grounds, these risks generate compensating differentials. Based on gender-specific injury incidence rates for both industry and occupation, I find strong evidence of compensating wage differentials for the job risk …
Pain And Suffering: Damages In Search Of A Sounder Rationale, W. Kip Viscusi
Pain And Suffering: Damages In Search Of A Sounder Rationale, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This paper will address pain and suffering generally and will not distinguish these different potential components of pain and suffering damages. Section 1 presents the theoretical foundations for damages awards, including both the deterrence and compensation objectives. Section 2 explores some practical rationales for pain and suffering damages, such as the omission of legal fees as a component of damages. Section 3 examines the extent to which pain and suffering awards vary systematically with the extent and nature of the injury as opposed to simply being random acts of capricious juries. Since much of the interest in pain and suffering …
Worker Learning And Compensating Differentials, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore
Worker Learning And Compensating Differentials, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In the standard compensating wage differential model, workers value their wage and workers' compensation components based on full job risk information. Market forces generate positive wage differentials as ex ante compensation for exposure to relatively high risk. Similarly, market forces generate wage offsets for the increases in ex post risk compensation embodied in workers' compensation benefits. These predictions can be modified to take into account potential imperfections in worker information, as in Viscusi (1979a,b, 1980a,b,d), where the role of learning is incorporated into the worker's decision model. The potential for learning about risks introduces a new market response through worker …
Alternative Approaches To Valuing The Health Impacts Of Accidents: Liability Law And Prospective Evaluations, W. Kip Viscusi
Alternative Approaches To Valuing The Health Impacts Of Accidents: Liability Law And Prospective Evaluations, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The task of valuing accidental injuries and deaths is intrinsically difficult for two reasons. First, unlike standard consumer commodities, individual health is not traded explicitly on the market. It may be traded implicitly as with wage premiums for risky jobs, but these implicit prices must be estimated statistically. The second problem is that the value one places on any economic commodity depends on the welfare one can derive from it. Since adverse health effects influence the welfare one can obtain from any given level of income, the value of one's health status depends on the context in which such values …