Showing papers on "Opportunism published in 1982"

Readings in the economics of contract law

Abstract: Economic analysis is being applied by scholars to an increasing range of legal problems. This collection brings together some of the main contributions to an important area of this work, the economics of contract law. The essays and illuminating notes, questions, and introductions provided by the editor outline the Law and Economics framework for analyzing contractual relationships. The first two parts of the book present a number of useful concepts - adverse selection, moral hazard, and rent seeking - and a general way of thinking about the economics of contracting and contract law. The remainder of the book considers a wide range of topics and issues. The recurring theme is that contracting parties want to assign the responsibility for adjusting to particular contingencies to the party best able to control the costs of adjustment. The adjustment problem is exacerbated by the fact that the parties might engage in various types of strategic behavior, such as opportunism, moral hazard, and rent-seeking. Many contract law doctrines can best be understood as attempts to replicate how reasonable parties might resolve this adjustment problem.

Opportunism in labour contracting: An application of the ‘organisational failures’ framework

Abstract: The ‘Markets and Hierarchies’ framework provides a basis for the analysis of employment relations. However, it fails to take the possibility of bilateral opportunism into account and in consequence exaggerates the ease of obtaining consummate cooperation. Once bilateral opportunism is admitted, the resolution of contractual problems becomes indeterminate, depending upon the preference and relative power of the parties. These preferences can be modelled,analysis of technological change issues reveals that such a model has some explanatory power. The implication of this approach is that the removal of opportunism implies relatively organisational surgery.

Reflections: ethics and the recombinant DNA debate.

Abstract: This essay is an attempt to apply a mode of ethical reflection to questions related to the recombinant DNA debate. The author suggests that adequate ethical analysis must include at least five aspects of a moral situation 1) the nature of the act itself; 2) consequences that result from an action or decision; 3) civil and criminal laws; 4) moral principles; and 5) motivation or intention. This paradigm for analysis is applied to the recombinant DNA scene, particularly as these factors relate to 1) risks vs benefits; 2) laws and regulations; 3) the marketplace; and 4) human genetic intervention. The analysis does not provide answers to these vexing questions, but attempts to raise the consciousness level of the reader concerning significant ethical issues. Undergirding the discussion is the humanistic theme of the primacy of the concern for the public good, and that freedom of inquiry can only survive in a socially conscious context. Fear of the unknown is no reason for prohibiting DNA research, but since the stakes are high as new developments emerge that pertain to the genetic restructuring of the human species, the author suggests that caution and responsible judgment are mandatory. Since ethics is concerned with ideal moral judgments, and applied ethics relates to the real world in which we function, the demand for clear and careful thought concerning the short-term and long-term consequences of our work is a primary ingredient of what it means to be responsible. In the final analysis, ethical responsibility rests on the individual; without a sense of personal integrity and what that implies about oneself and society, blatant opportunism can easily become the generally accepted mode of behavior and decision. If this occurs, traditional ethical concerns become irrelevant.