Investments to Make Threats Credible, Rent-Seeking, and Duress
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2015
Journal Title
Supreme Court Economic Review
ISSN
0736-9921
DOI
10.1086/686483
Abstract
Existing literature on the contract law doctrine of duress identifies a number of tests to determine conditions under which a contract can be voided. No article provides a specific and formal economic analysis on the link between rent- seeking and the conditions under which allowing a defense of duress is wealth enhancing. This article shows that commitments made as a result of ex ante investments by threatening parties made solely for the purpose of transferring, rather than creating wealth, ought to be voidable. We discuss cases in which a test based on rent-seeking enhances efficiency where previously proposed tests do not.
First Page
341
Last Page
351
Num Pages
11
Volume Number
23
Issue Number
1
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Recommended Citation
Murat C. Mungan & Mark Seidenfeld,
Investments to Make Threats Credible, Rent-Seeking, and Duress,
23
Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev.
341
(2015).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1873