Compensation for Occupational Disease: Evaluating the Options
评估职业病赔偿的不同责任与赔偿规则，以最小化疾病相关总成本为标准，比较工伤保险、侵权法、第一方保险和政府项目，发现按比例分摊责任的工作赔偿系统更优。
This paper evaluates alternative rules of liability and compensation for occupational disease. The criterion applied is minimization of the sum of the costs associated with occupational disease, disease prevention, uninsured risk costs, and litigation and insurance overhead or transaction costs. Options considered include the workers' compensation system, the tort system, first party insurance, and potential government programs. It is argued that the costs of insurance and uninsured risk significantly affect the optimal liability rule for occupational disease, because the long latency of many occupational diseases undermines diversification of risk through liability and first party insurance. The workers' competisation system, with pro rata division of liability among contributing employers, appears to be superior to the alternatives.