Essays in law and economics

This dissertation bundles together a number of essays that find themselves on the intersection of the fields of law and economics. It shows that economics can help determine the rationale of individuals’ behaviour both in situations of certainty and uncertainty, by looking at incentives and consequences of behavioural choices. Economics can create insights into the rationale and goals of legislation and it can also explain how preferences and information asymmetries influence the outcomes of negotiations between multiple parties. If there is a central thesis to this dissertation, it is that legal issues can benefit from economic analysis in every stage of the legal process. Albeit by explaining legal constructs from a behavioural perspective ex post, or by using economic concepts to inform legislative decisions ex ante.