I extend the model of legal standards in Katsoulacos and Ulph (2009) to allow for optimal statistical decision-making by the regulator. I show that an effects-based standard produces weakly lower decision error costs than a per se standard in this setting. I also use the framework to highlight an important implicit assumption underlying the comparison of legal standards in the cited paper.
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Citation
Economics Letters
Volume 194, September 2020, 109359