Showing papers on "Damages published in 2018"

Quantifying Economic Damages from Climate Change

Abstract: Author(s): Auffhammer, M | Abstract: Climate scientists have spent billions of dollars and eons of supercomputer time studying how increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and changes in the reflectivity of the earth’s surface affect dimensions of the climate system relevant to human society: surface temperature, precipitation, humidity, and sea levels. Recent incarnations of physical climate models have become sophisticated enough to be able to simulate intensities and frequencies of some extreme events, like tropical storms, under different warming scenarios. In a stark juxtaposition, the efforts involved in and the public resources targeted at understanding how these physical changes translate into economic impacts are disproportionately smaller, with most of the major models being developed and maintained with little to no public funding support. The goal of this paper is first to shed light on how (mostly) economists have gone about calculating the “social cost of carbon” for regulatory purposes and to provide an overview of the past and currently used estimates. In the second part, I will focus on where empirical economists may have the highest value added in this enterprise: specifically, the calibration and estimation of economic damage functions, which map weather patterns transformed by climate change into economic benefits and damages. A broad variety of econometric methods have recently been used to parameterize the dose (climate) response (economic outcome) functions. The paper seeks to provide an accessible and comprehensive overview of how economists think about parameterizing damage functions and quantifying the economic damages of climate change.

Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets.

Abstract: International climate change agreements typically specify global warming thresholds as policy targets 1 , but the relative economic benefits of achieving these temperature targets remain poorly understood2,3. Uncertainties include the spatial pattern of temperature change, how global and regional economic output will respond to these changes in temperature, and the willingness of societies to trade present for future consumption. Here we combine historical evidence 4 with national-level climate 5 and socioeconomic 6 projections to quantify the economic damages associated with the United Nations (UN) targets of 1.5 °C and 2 °C global warming, and those associated with current UN national-level mitigation commitments (which together approach 3 °C warming 7 ). We find that by the end of this century, there is a more than 75% chance that limiting warming to 1.5 °C would reduce economic damages relative to 2 °C, and a more than 60% chance that the accumulated global benefits will exceed US$20 trillion under a 3% discount rate (2010 US dollars). We also estimate that 71% of countries—representing 90% of the global population—have a more than 75% chance of experiencing reduced economic damages at 1.5 °C, with poorer countries benefiting most. Our results could understate the benefits of limiting warming to 1.5 °C if unprecedented extreme outcomes, such as large-scale sea level rise 8 , occur for warming of 2 °C but not for warming of 1.5 °C. Inclusion of other unquantified sources of uncertainty, such as uncertainty in secular growth rates beyond that contained in existing socioeconomic scenarios, could also result in less precise impact estimates. We find considerably greater reductions in global economic output beyond 2 °C. Relative to a world that did not warm beyond 2000–2010 levels, we project 15%–25% reductions in per capita output by 2100 for the 2.5–3 °C of global warming implied by current national commitments 7 , and reductions of more than 30% for 4 °C warming. Our results therefore suggest that achieving the 1.5 °C target is likely to reduce aggregate damages and lessen global inequality, and that failing to meet the 2 °C target is likely to increase economic damages substantially.

Life cycle environmental emissions and health damages from the Canadian healthcare system: An economic-environmental-epidemiological analysis

Abstract: Background Human health is dependent upon environmental health. Air pollution is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and climate change has been identified as the single greatest public health threat of the 21st century. As a large, resource-intensive sector of the Canadian economy, healthcare itself contributes to pollutant emissions, both directly from facility and vehicle emissions and indirectly through the purchase of emissions-intensive goods and services. Together these are termed life cycle emissions. Here, we estimate the extent of healthcare-associated life cycle emissions as well as the public health damages they cause. Methods and findings We use a linked economic-environmental-epidemiological modeling framework to quantify pollutant emissions and their implications for public health, based on Canadian national healthcare expenditures over the period 2009–2015. Expenditures gathered by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) are matched to sectors in a national environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) model to estimate emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and >300 other pollutants. Damages to human health are then calculated using the IMPACT2002+ life cycle impact assessment model, considering uncertainty in the damage factors used. On a life cycle basis, Canada’s healthcare system was responsible for 33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), or 4.6% of the national total, as well as >200,000 tonnes of other pollutants. We link these emissions to a median estimate of 23,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually from direct exposures to hazardous pollutants and from environmental changes caused by pollution, with an uncertainty range of 4,500–610,000 DALYs lost annually. A limitation of this national-level study is the use of aggregated data and multiple modeling steps to link healthcare expenditures to emissions to health damages. While informative on a national level, the applicability of these findings to guide decision-making at individual institutions is limited. Uncertainties related to national economic and environmental accounts, model representativeness, and classification of healthcare expenditures are discussed. Conclusions Our results for GHG emissions corroborate similar estimates for the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, with emissions from hospitals and pharmaceuticals being the most significant expenditure categories. Non-GHG emissions are responsible for the majority of health damages, predominantly related to particulate matter (PM). This work can guide efforts by Canadian healthcare professionals toward more sustainable practices.

Models and computational algorithms for maritime risk analysis: a review

Abstract: Due to the undesirable implications of maritime mishaps such as ship collisions and the consequent damages to maritime property; the safety and security of waterways, ports and other maritime assets are of the utmost importance to authorities and researches. Terrorist attacks, piracy, accidents and environmental damages are some of the concerns. This paper provides a detailed literature review of over 180 papers about different threats, their consequences pertinent to the maritime industry, and a discussion on various risk assessment models and computational algorithms. The methods are then categorized into three main groups: statistical, simulation and optimization models. Corresponding statistics of papers based on year of publication, region of case studies and methodology are also presented.

Enhanced Damages, Litigation Cost Recovery, and Interest

Abstract: This chapter discusses the law and policy of monetary awards—including exemplary damages and litigation cost recoveries—that go beyond the compensatory damages to which prevailing parties in patent litigation are normally entitled. Up to treble damages are authorized in the United States for knowing infringement, but attorney fees are awarded only in exceptional cases. The rest of the world tends towards the opposite: attorney fees are awarded as a matter of course, but punitive damages are generally prohibited as against public policy. In this chapter we discuss the theory, law, and policy of enhanced damages and attorney fee awards in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. While the availability of enhanced damages and fees can bring accused infringers that might otherwise “holdout” to the table, care must also be taken to ensure that it does not discourage productive learning from patents or challenges to overbroad and vague patents. Rather than endorsing any single set of doctrinal rules, we recommend further research into a number of unanswered questions about current and potential future configurations, in order to inform future policy-making.

Transposition of the Antitrust Damages Directive Into Spanish Law

Abstract: This paper analyses the legal measures adopted to implement Directive 2014/104/EU into Spanish law. After briefly looking at the context of private enforcement of competition law in Spain, it examines the process followed for the transposition and the issues discussed before the adoption of the Transposition Decree in May 2017. Overall, it can be affirmed that the new rules comply with the mandates of the Directive, only in a few matters there seems that there will be doubts concerning the interpretation of the new provisions. Some of the doubts may be rooted in the Directive itself (relative responsibility of co-infringers, umbrella claimants, harm to suppliers), and others in the lack of express rules in the Transposition Decree on some matters (causation, fault requirement, interests calculation), moreover it is uncertain how the new procedural tools will play out in practice as they imply a revolutionary change in our procedural rules.

Valuing the protection services of mangroves at national scale: The Philippines

Abstract: In this work we pilot a methodology to value the annual coastal protection benefits provided by mangroves in the Philippines and identify where these natural coastal defenses deliver the greatest protection. This is the first rigorous, engineering-based, nationwide evaluation of the effectiveness of mangrove habitats as natural defenses. By comparing flood damages for scenarios with and without mangroves, the study estimates the socioeconomic benefits for protecting people and property, to inform conservation and disaster risk reduction policies. Without mangroves, flooding and damages to people, property and infrastructure in the Philippines would increase annually around 25%. These habitats reduce flooding to 613,500 people/year, 23% of whom live below the poverty line. They also avert damages to 1 billion US$/year in residential and industrial property. If mangroves were restored to their 1950 distribution, there would be additional benefits to 267,000 people annually, including 61,500 people below poverty and an additional 453 mill. US$ in avoided damages. Currently, mangroves prevent more than 1.7 billion US$ in damages for extreme events (1-in-50-year). Ultimately, rigorous economic estimates of critical ecosystem services like this will help the national government to integrate the value of mangroves to people, into their national accounting systems.

Disasters, local organizations, and poverty in the USA, 1998 to 2015

Abstract: Disaster research has drawn attention to how natural hazards transform local organizational dynamics and social inequalities. It has yet to examine how these processes unfold together over time. We begin to fill this gap with a county-level, longitudinal analysis that examines how property damages from natural hazards correlate not only with local shifts in poverty a year later but also counts of for-profit as well as bonding and bridging social capital organizations. Results show that poverty and all organizational types tend to increase with local hazard damages. They also show that poverty tends to increase most where the number of bonding social capital organizations is also increasing. This pattern suggests a Janus-faced dynamic in which bonding, or more inwardly focused, organizations that arise after disaster may end up inadvertently marginalizing those in more dire need.

Escalation of Scrutiny: The Gains from Dynamic Enforcement of Environmental Regulations

Abstract: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses a dynamic approach to enforcing air pollution regulations, with repeat offenders subject to high fines and designation as high priority violators (HPV). We estimate the value of dynamic enforcement by developing and estimating a dynamic model of a plant and regulator, where plants decide when to invest in pollution abatement technologies. We use a fixed grid approach to estimate random coefficient specifications. Investment, fines, and HPV designation are costly to most plants. Eliminating dynamic enforcement would raise pollution damages by 164% with constant fines or raise fines by 519% with constant pollution damages.

The Challenge of the New Preemption

Abstract: The past decade has witnessed the emergence and rapid spread of a new and aggressive form of state preemption of local government action across a wide range of subjects, including inter alia firearms, workplace conditions, sanctuary cities, anti-discrimination laws, plastic bag bans, and menu labeling. Particularly striking are punitive measures that do not just preempt local ordinances but hit local officials or governments with criminal or civil fines, state aid cut-offs, or liability for damages, and broad preemption proposals that would virtually end local initiative over a wide range of subjects. The rise of the new preemption is closely linked to the partisan and ideological polarization between red states (or purple states with red governments) and their blue cities. This article outlines the spread of the new preemption and explores the limited legal arguments available to local governments under existing law for challenging preemption. It then draws on the normative values of local decision-making, the cornerstone role local governments play in our governmental structure, and the widespread state constitutional adoption of home rule to protect local autonomy to develop legal arguments for the invalidation of the more extreme preemptive measures. It also considers whether, in light of the conservative embrace of state governments over local ones and the progressive turn to localism, arguments about federalism or localism are really just means to other policy ends. It concludes that, particularly in the current era of polarization, our system ought to protect some local space for self-determination for problems that arise at the local level.

Sustainable survival under climatic extremes: linking flood risk mitigation and coping with flood damages in rural Pakistan

Abstract: Various measures are adopted by flood-prone households for the mitigation of flood risk along with various post-flood coping strategies. We analyze the role of various ex ante household-level flood mitigation strategies in influencing riverine flood damages. The study also presents an account on the linkages of various ex post coping strategies and flood damages experienced in a flood event in Pakistan. For achieving a uniform flood damage indicator, polychoric principle component analysis (PCA) is employed to construct a composite flood damage index considering various aspects of economic, social, and psychological impacts of a flood event. The adjusted flood damage index is regressed on various socioeconomic features and ex ante mitigation actions to know their effect on the former. Results indicate that distance from river, elevating house, and pre-shifting investigating about flooding problem help in significantly reducing the overall flood damages. Likewise, group-based actions like voting political candidates based on their flood-control promises, organizing grass-root group meetings, and raising voices through memos/petitions are found to significantly reduce flood-related damages while leaving house premises before flooding is found to increase the overall flood damage. Post-flood coping strategies comprise of social and financial support along with some livelihood diversification and disinvestment strategies such as selling livestock, jewelry, and withdrawing children from schools. Borrowing money, reducing food consumption, and agricultural diversification are more prevalent strategies among low and medium damage groups while consuming savings is more conspicuous among high damage group. The study concludes with the emphasis on policy interventions for effective early warning, location-specific flood intensity information, and proper streamlining of planning process and compensation system.

Uber Drivers and Employment Status in the Gig Economy: Should Corporate Social Responsibility Tip the Scales?

Abstract: As the gig economy continues to grow, the legal status of its workers remains a source of confusion and controversy. Uber and other transportation network companies (TNCs) typically disclaim employee status, depriving drivers of social insurance among other benefits. Further, such companies typically deny liability to third party victims for damages due to auto accidents, sexual assaults, and other negative outcomes arising out of their business. Legal and regulatory systems in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to struggle with how to determine and apply a consistent standard as to employee classification. We argue that corporate social responsibility should figure prominently in the equation. Private companies already are required to cover social costs of doing business in a variety of contexts (e.g., workers compensation, family leave, public and workplace accommodations for disabled individuals), and it makes sense that they also should be required to underwrite other important implications associated with employee status as part of their responsibilities to society. This is especially so where, as with Uber and other TNCs, a company’s core profit-making operations include activities that carry the direct potential for causing substantial harm both to individual clients and to the public at large.

As Disaster Costs Rise, So Does Inequality:

Abstract: Across the United States, communities are experiencing increases in the frequency and severity of natural hazards. The pervasiveness and upward trajectory of these damages are worrisome enough, but...

Judging Equity: The Fusion of Unclean Hands in U.S. Law

Abstract: T. Leigh Anenson analyzes the scope of judicial authority and discretion to recognize the equitable doctrine of unclean hands as a bar to actions seeking damages in the United States. Bringing an American perspective to contentious conversation about law-equity fusion in other countries of the common law, Anenson provides a historical, doctrinal, and theoretical account of the integration, analyzes cases in the federal courts and across the fifty states, and places the issue of integration within a broader debate over the fusion of law and equity. Her analysis also includes descriptive and normative accounts of the equitable maxim of unclean hands. This groundbreaking work, which clarifies conflicting case law and advances the idea of a principled fusion of law and equity, should be read by anyone interested in the need for equity - its cultivation, preservation, and celebration.

How Flood Damages to Public Infrastructure Affect Municipal Budget Indicators.

Abstract: Countries' economic activity as well as their fiscal position are vulnerable to climate- and weather related extreme events. Existing research shows that effects on GDP may be either positive or negative, while fiscal implications are clearly negative. Current literature focuses on fiscal implications at the national level. Predicted increases in climate- and weather related extreme events, though, are regionally highly variable. Hence, information concerning the regional vulnerability to specific extreme events is a vital input for adaptation policies. To answer this information demand, this article looks at how flood damages to public infrastructure affect four budget figures (current income balance, asset management balance, financial transaction balance, and the annual result), exploring the case of Upper Austrian municipalities. Based on a dynamic model and a sample of 442 municipalities from 2009 to 2014 it is found that damages to public infrastructure have a negative impact on municipalities' current income balance and their annual result. This indicates a weakening of municipalities' financial situation. To increase municipalities' budgetary resilience with regards to public flood damages, municipalities can revert to stricter land use regulation and precautionary measures such as wet- or dry-flood proofing, or to flood insurance.

Promotion and Harmonization of Antitrust Damages Claims by Directive EU/2014/104?

Abstract: Directive EU/2014/104 is the latest legal instrument that crystalizes the evolution of EU competition law enforcement. This paper assesses critically the features of the Directive and the challenges it poses for its implementation by Member States. The Directive codifies the case law of the EUCJ and it encroaches upon the autonomy of Member States in setting the institutions, remedies and procedures available for victims’ of antitrust infringements. Although the Directive provides a fragmented and incomplete set of rules that only partially harmonizes antitrust damages claims in the EU, and it’s slanted towards follow-on cartel damages claims, it has publicised the availability of damages claims, creating momentum that will transform how competition law is enforced in the future.

The Disgorgement Interest in Contract Law

Abstract: Restatement Second of Contracts provided that contract law serves to protect one or more of three interests: the expectation interest, the reliance interest, and the restitution interest. There is,...

The Effect of FRAND Commitments on Patent Remedies

Abstract: This chapter addresses a special category of cases in which an asserted patent is, or has been declared to be, essential to the implementation of a collaboratively-developed voluntary consensus standard, and the holder of that patent has agreed to license it to implementers of the standard on terms that are fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND). In this chapter, we explore how the existence of such a FRAND commitment may affect a patent holder’s entitlement to monetary damages and injunctive relief. In addition to issues of patent law, remedies law and contract law, we consider the effect of competition law on this issue.

The Challenge of the New Preemption

Abstract: The past decade has witnessed the emergence and rapid spread of a new and aggressive form of state preemption of local government action across a wide range of subjects, including inter alia firearms, workplace conditions, sanctuary cities, anti-discrimination laws, plastic bag bans, and menu labeling. Particularly striking are punitive measures that do not just preempt local ordinances but hit local officials or governments with criminal or civil fines, state aid cut-offs, or liability for damages, and broad preemption proposals that would virtually end local initiative over a wide range of subjects. The rise of the new preemption is closely linked to the partisan and ideological polarization between red states (or purple states with red governments) and their blue cities. This article outlines the spread of the new preemption and explores the limited legal arguments available to local governments under existing law for challenging preemption. It then draws on the normative values of local decision-making, the cornerstone role local governments play in our governmental structure, and the widespread state constitutional adoption of home rule to protect local autonomy to develop legal arguments for the invalidation of the more extreme preemptive measures. It also considers whether, in light of the conservative embrace of state governments over local ones and the progressive turn to localism, arguments about federalism or localism are really just means to other policy ends. It concludes that, particularly in the current era of polarization, our system ought to protect some local space for self-determination for problems that arise at the local level.

Grotius on Property and the Right of Necessity

Abstract: It is widely held that in situations of peril, it is permissible to use another’s property without her permission if that is the only way to save oneself from serious harm, but that if one damages or consumes that property, one ought to compensate its owner. However, this idea—that there is what is commonly called ‘the right of necessity’—has proven surprisingly difficult to justify. According to Grotius, the right of necessity issues from a constraint imposed by natural law on the positive law of private property. I defend an interpretation of Grotius’s account of property and the right of necessity against some recent sympathetic readers, and show how he escapes a seemingly telling criticism from Pufendorf.

The process of litigation for medical errors in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom

Abstract: Efficient process of litigation of medical errors is a key to ensure fair, speedy, and accessible justice system. The conditions of establishing medical negligence are similar in both legal systems. These conditions include the duty of care, breach of that duty of care, the damages, and establishing causation. A culture of litigation and compensation is growing in the United Kingdom and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; however the cost of medical claims and awarded compensations are much more in the United Kingdom compared to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there is a need for more transparency in the documentation and publication of litigated medical errors. In addition, there is a need to introduce interventions to shorten the duration of litigation in both legal systems. Financial caps on awarded compensation and caps on expert and legal fees are potential strategies to control the cost of medical errors which seems to work well in the Saudi model.

The liability of notified bodies under the EU's new approach : the implications of the PIP breast implants case.

Abstract: In this article, we analyse the consequences of the CJEU’s judgment in Schmitt , a preliminary reference concerning the potential liability of the notified body TUV Rheinland vis-a-vis women who had received breast implants produced by the French manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese SA (PIP). Our discussion focuses on (1) the impact of the judgment on the damages actions that women have brought against TUV Rheinland before national courts; (2) the future regulation of medical devices in the EU; and (3) the regulation of private standardisation and certification in EU law. We argue that Schmitt can be seen as part of a broader trend in the case law of the CJEU, in which private regulatory activities are gradually submitted to fundamental principles of EU law. While this "constitutionalisation" of private regulation strengthens the public accountability of these alternative forms of regulation, it also poses fundamental challenges to their current design and internal governance.