IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v66y2020icp217-235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A justification for caveat emptor in the secondhand market: Risk transfer, enforcement cost and insurance

Author

Listed:
  • Seshimo, Hiroyuki

Abstract

Caveat emptor (”let the buyer beware”) is the prevailing legal doctrine in sales transactions, especially in secondhand markets such as the residential housing market. In this paper, I provide one of the theoretical justifications for this legal doctrine. I mainly examine the doctrines of caveat venditor (”let the seller beware”) and caveat emptor and consider which doctrine better mitigates the adverse selection problem. I consider the secondhand market with risk-averse sellers and buyers; in this context, the risk transfer function plays an important role. Then, I reveal that caveat emptor outperforms caveat venditor, at least unless the legal enforcement cost is free.

Suggested Citation

  • Seshimo, Hiroyuki, 2020. "A justification for caveat emptor in the secondhand market: Risk transfer, enforcement cost and insurance," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 217-235.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:66:y:2020:i:c:p:217-235
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2020.04.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S031359261930219X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2020.04.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Riley, John G, 1979. "Informational Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(2), pages 331-359, March.
    2. Michael Spence, 1977. "Consumer Misperceptions, Product Failure and Producer Liability," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 561-572.
    3. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    4. Albert H. Choi & Kathryn E. Spier, 2014. "Should Consumers be Permitted to Waive Products Liability? Product Safety, Private Contracts, and Adverse Selection," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(4), pages 734-766.
    5. Seshimo, Hiroyuki, 2014. "Adverse selection versus hold up: Tenure choice, tenancy protection and equilibrium in housing markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 39-55.
    6. Michael Rothschild & Joseph Stiglitz, 1976. "Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 629-649.
    7. Wilson, Charles, 1977. "A model of insurance markets with incomplete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 167-207, December.
    8. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Botond Koszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2007. "Reference-Dependent Risk Attitudes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1047-1073, September.
    10. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    11. repec:bla:jemstr:v:4:y:1995:i:1:p:33-53:a is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Padmanabhan, V, 1995. "Usage Heterogeneity and Extended Warranties," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 33-53, Spring.
    13. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    14. K. W. Chau & Lennon H. T. Choy, 2011. "Let the Buyer or Seller Beware: Measuring Lemons in the Housing Market under Different Doctrines of Law Governing Transactions and Information," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(S4), pages 347-365.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kosenko, Andrew & Stiglitz, Joseph & Yun, Jungyoll, 2023. "Bilateral information disclosure in adverse selection markets with nonexclusive competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 144-168.
    2. Daniel Broxterman & Tingyu Zhou, 2023. "Information Frictions in Real Estate Markets: Recent Evidence and Issues," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 203-298, February.
    3. De Feo, Giuseppe & Hindriks, Jean, 2014. "Harmful competition in insurance markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 213-226.
    4. Wanda Mimra & Achim Wambach, 2011. "A Game-Theoretic Foundation for the Wilson Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets with Adverse Selection," CESifo Working Paper Series 3412, CESifo.
    5. Anastasios Dosis, 2016. "An Efficient Mechanism for Competitive Markets with Adverse Selection," Working Papers hal-01282772, HAL.
    6. Wanda Mimra & Achim Wambach, 2019. "Contract withdrawals and equilibrium in competitive markets with adverse selection," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(4), pages 875-907, June.
    7. Gemmo, Irina & Kubitza, Christian & Rothschild, Casey, 2020. "Constrained efficient equilibria in selection markets with continuous types," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    8. Lázár Ede, 2014. "Quantifying the Economic Value of Warranties: A Survey," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 2(1), pages 75-94, October.
    9. Aldo Pignataro, 2019. "The effects of loss aversion on deceptive advertising policies," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 451-472, November.
    10. Dionne, G. & Doherty, N., 1991. "Adverse Selection in Insurance Markets: a Selective Survey," Cahiers de recherche 9105, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    11. Dionne, Georges & Harrington, Scott, 2017. "Insurance and Insurance Markets," Working Papers 17-2, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    12. Hubert, Franz, 1995. "Contracting with costly tenants," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 631-654, October.
    13. Lei, Yong & Liu, Qian & Shum, Stephen, 2017. "Warranty pricing with consumer learning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(2), pages 596-610.
    14. John G. Riley, 2001. "Silver Signals: Twenty-Five Years of Screening and Signaling," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 432-478, June.
    15. Chen, Bingzheng & Feng, Frank Y. & Powers, Michael R. & Qiu, Joseph, 2019. "Risk-revealing contracts for government-sponsored microinsurance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    16. Dosis, Anastasios, 2019. "Optimal ex post risk adjustment in markets with adverse selection," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 52-59.
    17. Raj Chetty & Amy Finkelstein, 2012. "Social Insurance: Connecting Theory to Data," NBER Working Papers 18433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. K. P. M. Winssen & R. C. Kleef & W. P. M. M. Ven, 2018. "Can premium differentiation counteract adverse selection in the Dutch supplementary health insurance? A simulation study," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(5), pages 757-768, June.
    19. Wei Zhang, 2014. "Job Market Signalling With Two Dimensions Of Private Information," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 113-132, April.
    20. Aidan Hollis, 1996. "Exclusivity Restrictions in Markets with Adverse Selection: The Case of Extended Warranties," Working Papers ecpap-96-03, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”); Caveat venditor (“let the seller beware”); Adverse selection; Warranty; Insurance contract; Risk transfer;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K13 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Tort Law and Product Liability; Forensic Economics
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:66:y:2020:i:c:p:217-235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.