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Article
Cadillac Contracts and Up-Front Payments: Efficient Investment Under Expectation Damages
Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (1996)
  • Aaron S. Edlin
Abstract
This article shows that up-front payments can eliminate the overinvestment effect identified by Shavell (1980), by controlling which party breaches a contract. At the same time, "Cadillac" contracts (contracts for a very high quality or quantity) can protect against underinvestment due to Williamsonian holdups. This combination provides efficient investment incentives when courts use expectation damages as a remedy for breach. The expectation damages remedy is therefore well-suited to multidimensional but one-sided investment problems, in contrast to specific performance, which is well-suited to two-sided but unidimensional investment problems.
Disciplines
Publication Date
April, 1996
Citation Information
Aaron S. Edlin. "Cadillac Contracts and Up-Front Payments: Efficient Investment Under Expectation Damages" Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization Vol. 12 Iss. 1 (1996)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/aaron_edlin/7/