Logo of Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinLogo of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
edoc-Server
Open-Access-Publikationsserver der Humboldt-Universität
de|en
Header image: facade of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
View Item 
  • edoc-Server Home
  • Schriftenreihen und Sammelbände
  • Fakultäten und Institute der HU
  • Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
  • Sonderforschungsbereich 649: Ökonomisches Risiko
  • View Item
  • edoc-Server Home
  • Schriftenreihen und Sammelbände
  • Fakultäten und Institute der HU
  • Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
  • Sonderforschungsbereich 649: Ökonomisches Risiko
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
All of edoc-ServerCommunity & CollectionTitleAuthorSubjectThis CollectionTitleAuthorSubject
PublishLoginRegisterHelp
StatisticsView Usage Statistics
All of edoc-ServerCommunity & CollectionTitleAuthorSubjectThis CollectionTitleAuthorSubject
PublishLoginRegisterHelp
StatisticsView Usage Statistics
View Item 
  • edoc-Server Home
  • Schriftenreihen und Sammelbände
  • Fakultäten und Institute der HU
  • Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
  • Sonderforschungsbereich 649: Ökonomisches Risiko
  • View Item
  • edoc-Server Home
  • Schriftenreihen und Sammelbände
  • Fakultäten und Institute der HU
  • Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
  • Sonderforschungsbereich 649: Ökonomisches Risiko
  • View Item
2006-02-14Buch DOI: 10.18452/3943
Penalties and Optimality in Financial Contracts
Taking Stock
Robe, Michel A.
Steiger, Eva-Maria
Michel, Pierre-Armand
A popular view of limited liability in financial contracting is that it is the result of societal preferences against excessive penalties. The view of most financial economists is instead that limited liability emerged as an optimal institution when, in the absence of a clear limit on economic agents´ liability, the development of some economic activities might have been thwarted. Viewing the institution from the perspective of optimal legal system design allows us to better understand the current debate on it. We present a broad history of penalties in financial contracts to highlight the interactions between technology, legal environments, purpose of the financial relationship, and contractual provisions. We show that harsh monetary and non-pecuniary penalties are not mere relics from a bygone era and, at the same time, that limited liability is far from a recent institution. We then discuss trade-offs associated with legal mandates of either unlimited or limited liability, both for the contracting parties and for the rest of Society. We identify two broad patterns. First, the toughness of liability rules and bankruptcy laws decreases as exogenous sources of uncertainty become relatively more important, and increases with the opportunity for moral hazard (related to diligence, risk taking, or deception). Second, bankruptcy laws become more lenient as the scope for labor specialization and the returns to human capital or entrepreneurship increase.
Files in this item
Thumbnail
13.pdf — Adobe PDF — 574.9 Kb
MD5: 6fe6b2cb8836e55ef3f57b89159762de
Cite
BibTeX
EndNote
RIS
InCopyright
Details
DINI-Zertifikat 2019OpenAIRE validatedORCID Consortium
Imprint Policy Contact Data Privacy Statement
A service of University Library and Computer and Media Service
© Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
 
DOI
10.18452/3943
Permanent URL
https://doi.org/10.18452/3943
HTML
<a href="https://doi.org/10.18452/3943">https://doi.org/10.18452/3943</a>