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The Law of General Average

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Abstract

Part of a ship’s cargo is jettisoned in order to save the vessel and the remaining cargo from imminent peril. How should the loss be shared among the cargo owners? The law of general average, an ancient principle of maritime law, prescribes that the owners share the loss proportionally according to the respective values of their cargo. We analyze whether the law of general average is a truthful and efficient mechanism. That is, we investigate whether it induces truthful reporting of cargo values and yields a Pareto efficient allocation in equilibrium. We show that the law of general average is neither truthful nor efficient if owners have expected utility preferences, but is both truthful and efficient if owners have maxmin utility preferences. We discuss why maxmin behavior may be reasonable in the general average context.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Anderlini & Joshua Teitlebaum, 2024. "The Law of General Average," Working Papers gueconwpa~24-24-02, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~24-24-03
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    Keywords

    General average; loss sharing; maritime law; maxmin; mutual insurance; truthful equilibrium; Pareto efficiency.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • K39 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Other

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