ORCID
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-20-2014
Abstract
These studies elicit behavioral evidence for how people weigh monetary and non-monetary incentives in efficient breach. Study 1 is an experimental game designed to capture the salient features of the efficient breach decision. Subjects in a behavioral lab were offered different amounts of money to break the deal they had made with a partner. 18.6% of participants indicated willingness to break a deal for any amount of profit, 27.9% were unwilling to breach for the highest payout, and the remaining subjects identified a break-point in between. Study 2 is an online questionnaire asking subjects to take the perspectives of buyers or sellers considering a profitable breach of contract. The results were consistent with Study 1, yielding a demand curve for breach. I conclude by proposing a research agenda that investigates in a systematic way how individuals make legal decisions in the face of competing norms.
Keywords
contracts, behavioral economics, psychology, promises, rational self-interest v. moral duty, moral/financial tradeoffs, empirical studies, characteristics of the breacher and the breach, characteristics of the non-breaching party, consequences of breach, preference endogeneity, competing norms
Repository Citation
Wilkinson-Ryan, Tess, "Demand for Breach" (2014). All Faculty Scholarship. 1234.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1234
Included in
Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Contracts Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Psychology Commons