The Law and Economics of Concealing Health and Safety Information

Abstract

A conspiracy to conceal information is a central allegation in prominent mass tort claims totaling billions of dollars. Analysis of such claims can be informed by evaluating firms' economic incentives to conceal substantive information. We show that these incentives — and thus the potential merit of such allegations — relies on the dynamic nature of the markets for information and innovation, which determine current and future expected public information dissemination and determine the likelihood of successful concealment of information.