The role of aviation laws and legal liability in aviation disasters: A financial market perspective

Thomas John Walker, Marcus Glenn Walker, Dolruedee Nuttanontra Thiengtham and Kuntara Pukthuanthong

International Review of Law and Economics, 2014, vol. 37, issue C, 51-65

Abstract: Legal liability claims against airlines and airplane manufacturers following an aviation disaster are determined through a myriad of international treaties, intercarrier agreements, and federal and state laws. Which law applies in a specific situation depends on various circumstances surrounding the accident. As a result, pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage awards for the families of the accident victims may vary substantially from case to case. Our study examines how aviation disasters affect the short and long-term performance of US airlines and US airplane manufacturers and explores the factors that drive the performance differences. While prior research has largely focused on brand name effects and rising insurance premiums as possible determinants of stock price losses, our results suggest that the regulatory environment that applies to a given aviation accident has a significant impact on how the market reacts to its announcement. Ceteris paribus, we find that accidents that are governed by state laws which place no limit on damage claims entail particularly large stock price declines. Accidents for which federal laws or international treaties restrict claimable damages, on the other hand, are associated with smaller stock price drops.

Keywords: Aviation law; Information and market efficiency; Event studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G14 L93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818813000537
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:37:y:2014:i:c:p:51-65

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2013.07.004

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Law and Economics is currently edited by C. Ott, A. W. Katz and H-B. Schäfer

More articles in International Review of Law and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().