Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 1982 Abstract: If the intent of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ERISA, was to assure that beneficiaries of insolvent pension plans receive adequate pension benefits, sharp increases in nominal rates of interest have blunted that purpose. Without an increase in these rates, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, PBGC, the […]
Economic Implications of Erisa
A Note on Private versus Social Incentives to Sue in a Costly Legal System
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 1983 Abstract: This article presents a game-theoretic model of costly litigation. The model shows that where an injurer can calibrate the level of damages done to other parties, it sacrifices in profits an amount related to the victim’s litigation costs by inducing suit. Thus the structure of the legal system […]
Notice Failure and Notice Externalities
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2012 Abstract: Economic theory suggests that notice plays a critical role in resource development. Resource developers will be disinclined to make significant investments without reasonable confidence that their projects will not violate the rights of others. Land rights systems and institutions generally provide reliable notice at relatively modest cost, enabling […]
Copyright Fee Shifting: A Proposal to Promote Fair Use and Fair Licensing
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2012 Abstract: The fair use doctrine seeks to facilitate socially optimal uses of copyrighted material. As a practical matter, however, cumulative creators, such as documentary filmmakers and many contemporary musicians, are often reluctant to rely on the fair use doctrine because of its inherent uncertainty, the potentially harsh remedies for […]
Picking Winners in Rounds of Elimination
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2012 Abstract: We study the optimal way to select projects or agents in environments where information arrives in well defined rounds. Examples include academic environments where review periods are set by policy, aptitude tests such as those given by software developers to programmers applying for jobs, venture capital protocols where the […]
Beyond the Throwaway Society: An Incentive Approach to Regulating Municipal Solid Waste
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: Abstract: This Article develops a multi-tier pricing model for internalizing the social costs of municipal solid waste and balancing transaction costs. The Article concludes that, while comprehensive monitoring systems would be prohibitively expensive, there are feasible economic incentive systems that would be extremely effective in reducing the quantity and improving […]
The Limitations of Legal Institutions for Addressing Environmental Risks
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 1991 Abstract: This article compares legal institutions and administrative agencies in controlling toxic torts and hazardous waste leaks. Keywords: Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2222391
Institutional Fantasylands: From Scientific Management to Free Market Environmentalism
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 1992 Abstract: This article exposes the utopian parallels between scientific management and free market environmentalism as institutional paradigms for governing environmental resources. It shows that just as traditional economic analysis of environmental problems often ignores the imperfections of public institutions, the free market environmentalist perspective reflects a comparably naive view […]
Orphan Works and the Search for Rightsholders: Who Participates in a ‘Diligent Search’ under Present and Proposed Regimes?
Author(s): Jennifer Urban Year: 2013 Abstract: Over the past several years, policy makers and private actors have developed an evolving set of approaches for addressing the orphan works problem — a problem that arises when “the owner of a copyrighted work cannot be identified and located by someone who wishes to make use of the […]
Trademark Law Primer
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2013 Abstract: This chapter summarizes trademark principles and substantive law. It is part of a forthcoming volume on managing trademark litigation. Keywords: Trademark Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2252872