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Applied and bridge studies study record
Hollow Win theory & mechanismsDiscovery Is Not Governance
STATUS · Manuscript in progressSSRN · Not yet posted
MECHANISM
Identify the incentive structure and the condition that would falsify the claim.
RULE CHANGE
Read the intervention only after the paper shows how the current payoff space fails to support system welfare.
READER USE
Use the summary to see where private gain creates system exposure, then check the study record.
Contribution — what this adds to the conversation
Provides formal proof that discovery cannot alter system-welfare failures and that DA can. Bridges legal scholarship (discovery, privilege) with mechanism design and MST. Contributes to the canon's reform-dividend argument.
WHAT'S NEW · Formalizes the 'discovery is archaeology' argument with three theorems (Discovery Insufficiency, DA Sufficiency, Cross-Sectional Evidence Insufficiency) and falsification conditions. Novel synthesis of legal discovery critique with game theory and DA protocol.
The paper establishes that post-hoc legal discovery is structurally incapable of preventing systemic welfare degradation. Using the Missing System Theory, it shows that discovery operates after collapse and cannot alter the 'Hollow Win' equilibrium where firms and regulators both gain while the system degrades. The paper proposes mandatory Decision Accounting—a 17-field protocol requiring contemporaneous recording of decision rationale—as the necessary reform. Three case studies (Volkswagen, BP, Purdue Pharma) illustrate the mechanism.