Law professor Keith Hylton has written "The Economics of Class Actions and Class Action Waivers." Here is the abstract:
Class
action litigation has generated a series of recent Supreme Court
decisions imposing greater federal court supervision over the
prosecution of collective injury claims. This group of cases raises the
question whether class action waivers should be permitted on policy
grounds. I examine the economics of class actions and waivers in this
paper. I distinguish between the standard one-on-one litigation
environment and the class action environment. In the standard
environment, waivers between informed agents enhance society’s welfare.
In the class action environment, in contrast, not all waivers are likely
to enhance society’s welfare.
