Below is a list of titles of working papers produced by CPDE members. PDF versions of the papers are available by clicking on the Members Only link to the left and logging on to the members-only portion of the CPDE website.

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• Pecuniary Value, Michael O'Hara, 2009

Abstract: Pecuniary damages are a policy choice. The law (unlike legal sibling, equity) offers the remedy of damages, and thus constrains recoverable losses to those loses that are captured by pecuniary values. Objectivity might be gained, but much can be lost, with a public policy that requires a loss to equate with a market's monetary valuation. One of the forms of "law and economics" tends to assume damages paid by the defendant are a mathematical identity with the plaintiff's loss. This assumption allows that form of "law and economics" to claim it perceives efficiency; but, it does so erroneously. In short, the trier of fact racks the value of those injuries that the law chose to recognize.