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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Michael, Bryane |
| Abstract: | Objectives-based legislation – or laws which focus on achieving particular and concrete outcomes – has become a new and important tool that financial sector regulators use to tackle large and varied financial system risks. Yet, objectives-based legislation – and the frequent principles-based regulation underpinned by such legislation – represents a stark departure from traditional ways of legislating. In this paper, we describe the problems and prospects of implementing objectives-based financial regulation in Hong Kong – in the form of a Twin Peaks regulatory structure. A focus on the objectives of achieving financial market stability and proper market conduct would require a different approach to legislating and regulating in Hong Kong (and most other countries). By describing the way Hong Kong’s legislators would adopt such objectives-based legislation putting a Twin Peaks regulatory structure in place, we hope to shed light on the broader trend in academic and practitioner circles toward thinking about how to use objectives-based legislation to tackle complex social risks. Such an approach may also reduce the use of patchworks of complex inter-agency agreements and rulemaking between traditional regulators as they try to solve large and difficult regulatory problems. |
| Keywords: | twin peaks,financial regulation,hong kong,financial law |
| JEL: | G18 K23 G28 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:107579&r=law |
| By: | Daniel Avdic; Christian Bünnings |
| Abstract: | Indirect psychological effects induced by crime are likely to contribute significantly to the total costs of crime beyond the financial costs of direct victimization. Using detailed crime statistics for the whole of Germany and linking them to individual-level mental health information from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze whether local crime rates affect the mental health of residents. We estimate that a one standard deviation increase in local violent crime rates significantly decreases individual mental well-being among residents by, on average, one percent. Smaller effects are found for property and total crime rates. Results are insensitive to migration and not isolated to urban areas, but are rather driven by less densely populated regions. In contrast to previous literature on vulnerability to crime, we find that men, more educated and singles react more to variation in violent crime rates in their neighborhoods. One potential explanation could be that those who are more fearful of crime have developed better coping strategies and, hence, react less to changes in crime. |
| Keywords: | Fear of crime, spillover effect, mental health, vulnerability, neighborhood effects, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 I18 K42 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp737&r=law |
| By: | Natalia Yu. Erpyleva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The present article examines the evolution of conflict regulation in the private international law of Russia and Poland. The author identifies the concept, structure and types of conflict rules, stressing that the conflict of laws is the most important category of private international law. A detailed classification of the types of connecting factor formulas under which connecting factors of bilateral conflict rules are formed is undertaken. The detailed analysis of conflict rules contained in Russian and Polish legislation set forth mainly in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Law of Poland “On Private International Law” is conducted with the help of the comparative and formal-logical methods of research. The author also scrutinizes different conflict rules contained in the Treaty between Russia and Poland on legal assistance and legal relations in civil and criminal matters. The author concludes that modern conflict regulation in Russia and Poland is in accordance with those trends in private international law, which can be seen through the prism of the international dimension. |
| Keywords: | Private International Law, conflict of laws rules, conflict regulation, connecting factor formulas, domestic legislation, international treaties |
| JEL: | K33 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:47/law/2015&r=law |
| By: | Maria Antonella Mancino (University of Western Ontario); Salvador Navarro (University of Western Ontario); David A. Rivers (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | We study the determinants of youth crime using a dynamic discrete choice model of crime and education. We allow past education and criminal activities to affect current crime and educational decisions. We take advantage of a rich panel dataset on serious juvenile offenders, the Pathways to Desistance. Using a series of psychometric tests, we estimate a model of cognitive and social/ emotional skills that feeds into the crime and education model. This allows us to separately identify the roles of state dependence, returns to experience, and heterogeneity in driving crime and enrollment decisions among youth. We find small effects of experience and stronger evidence of state dependence for crime and schooling. We provide evidence that, as a consequence, policies that affect individual heterogeneity (like social/emotional skills), and those that temporarily keep youth away from crime, can have important and lasting effects even if criminal experience has already accumulated. |
| Keywords: | Crime; Education; Youth |
| JEL: | I21 K42 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20151&r=law |
| By: | Natalia Ramírez Bustamante; Ana Maria Tribin Uribe; Carmiña O. Vargas |
| Abstract: | Our research seeks to determine the impact on female labor outcomes of the amendment on the Colombian labor law in which maternity leave was extended from 12 to 14 weeks (through Law 1468 of July 2011). To identify this impact we compare labor market outcomes of two groups of women with differences in their fertility rates. We find evidence that as a result of the extension of the maternity leave period, women in the high-fertility age group have experienced an increase in inactivity rates, informality, and self-employment. We argue that a redesign of maternity protection policy is due, one through which the economic and social costs of bearing children are shared by both parents and which may generate social change regarding the importance of paternal care. |
| Keywords: | Maternity leave, women’s labor market, labor regulation. |
| JEL: | J08 J2 J3 J7 K31 |
| Date: | 2015–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000094:012610&r=law |
| By: | Nadia Campaniello; Rowena Gray; Giovanni Mastrobouni |
| Abstract: | Is there any return to education in criminal activities? This is the first paper that investigates whether education has not only a positive impact on legitimate, but also on illegitimate activities. We use as a case study one of the longest running criminal corporations in history: the Italian-American mafia. Its most successful members have been capable businessmen, orchestrating crimes that require abilities that might be learned at school: extracting the optimal rent when setting up a racket, weighting interests against default risk when starting a loan sharking business or organising supply chains, logistics and distribution when setting up a drug dealing system. We address this question by comparing mobsters with their closest (non-mobster) neighbors using United States Census data in 1940. We document that mobsters have one year less education than their neighbors on average. None of the specifications presented identified any significant difference in the returns to education between these two groups. Private returns to education exist also in the illegal activities characterised by a certain degree of complexity as in the case of organized crime in mid-twentieth century United States. |
| Date: | 2015–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:763&r=law |
| By: | Simplice Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroun); Antonio Rodríguez Andrés (Madrid, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines two dimensions of the software piracy-development nexus to complement existing formal literature. It empirically assesses the incidence of piracy on the Human Development Index (HDI) and its constituents and then the instrumentality of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) treaties (laws) in the linkages. An instrumental variable or Two-stage least squares is applied on panel of 11 African countries with data for the period 2000-2010. Three main findings are established: (1) software piracy has a negative incidence on inequality adjusted human development; (2) the unappealing effect of piracy on the HDI is fuelled by per capita economic prosperity and life expectancy components of human emancipation; (3) software piracy increases literacy. Two major policy implications have been retained from the findings. Firstly, adherence to international IPRs protection treaties (laws) may not impede per capita economic prosperity and could improve life-expectancy. Secondly, adoption of tight IPRs regimes may negatively affect human development by diminishing the literacy rate and restricting diffusion of knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Software piracy; Human development; Intellectual property rights; Panel data, Instrumental variables |
| JEL: | K42 O34 O38 O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:14/035&r=law |
| By: | Nakajima, Makoto (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | A life-cycle model with equilibrium default in which consumers with and without temptation coexist is constructed to evaluate the 2005 bankruptcy law reform and other counterfactual reforms. The calibrated model indicates that the 2005 bankruptcy reform achieves its goal of reducing the number of bankruptcy filings, as seen in the data, but at the cost of loss in social welfare. The creditor-friendly reform provides borrowers with a stronger commitment to repay and thus yields lower default premia and better consumption smoothing. However, those who borrow and default due to temptation or unavoidable large expenditures suffer more under the reform due to higher costs or means-testing requirement. Moreover, those who borrow due to temptation suffer from overborrowing when the borrowing cost declines. The model indicates that the negative welfare effects dominate. |
| Keywords: | Consumer bankruptcy; Debt; Default; Borrowing constraint; Temptation and self-control; Hyperbolic discounting; Heterogeneous agents; Incomplete markets |
| JEL: | D91 E21 E44 G18 K35 |
| Date: | 2015–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:15-12&r=law |
| By: | Sean Dougherty |
| Abstract: | Mexico has embarked on a bold package of structural reforms that will help it to break away from three decades of slow growth and low productivity. Major structural measures have been legislated to improve competition, education, energy, the financial sector, labour, infrastructure and the tax system, among many, and implementation has started in earnest. If fully implemented, these reforms could increase annual trend per capita GDP growth by as much as one percentage point over the next ten years, with the energy reforms having the most front-loaded effects. Beyond this, a second wave could go further to tackle other structural bottlenecks. These challenges include reducing stringent regulation – particularly at the local level – and addressing corruption and weak enforcement of legal rights. The justice system is often slow and inefficient. And in the agricultural sector, strict land use restrictions and the structure of subsidies promote inefficiency. Moving even closer towards OECD best practices could increase potential growth by another percentage point annually.<P>Stimuler la croissance et réduire l'informalité au Mexique<BR>Le Mexique est engagé dans un ensemble audacieux de réformes structurelles qui lui permettront de rompre avec trois décennies de croissance lente et une faible productivité. Des mesures structurelles majeures ont été légiférées pour améliorer la concurrence, l'éducation, l'énergie, le secteur financier, le travail, les infrastructures et le système fiscal, parmi d'autres, et la mise en oeuvre a commencé pour de bon. Si elles sont pleinement mises en oeuvre, ces réformes pourraient augmenter la tendance annuelle de la croissance du PIB par habitant de près d'un point de pourcentage au cours des dix prochaines années, avec les réformes de l'énergie ayant les effets les plus importants. Au-delà, une deuxième vague pourrait aller plus loin pour s'attaquer à d'autres goulots d'étranglement structurels. Ces défis comprennent la réglementation stricte - en particulier au niveau local - et la lutte contre la corruption et la faible application des droits juridiques. Le système de justice est souvent lent et inefficace. Et dans le secteur agricole, des restrictions strictes d'utilisation des terres et la structure de subventions favorisent inefficacité. Aller encore plus vers les meilleures pratiques de l'OCDE pourrait augmenter la croissance potentielle d'un autre point de pourcentage par an. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, productivity, structural reforms, regulatory policies, legal institutions, cadre juridique, politiques réglementaires, croissance économique, productivité, réforme structurelle |
| JEL: | D2 F1 H4 K4 L1 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1188-en&r=law |
| By: | Walwei, Ulrich (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "From the mid-1980s until 2005 the German labour market was characterised by continuous deregulation. In the period of an improving German labour market, the German governments have since imposed measures to re-regulate the labour market in order to strengthen employees' rights. At the same time one can observe a tendency towards atypical forms of employment and an increase in low-wage employment. Two closely interrelated questions arise: What role did deregulation play with respect to the overall improvement of the German labour market and shifts in the employment structure? How could re-regulation impact labour market performance and employment structure in the future? The paper presents evidence that institutional reforms were an important driver of the improvement of the German labour market as well as of changes in the employment structure but definitely not the only one. This result suggests that with regard to the potential effects of recent re-regulation neither concerns about severe job losses nor hopes for a much better quality of jobs should be overestimated." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | atypische Beschäftigung, Arbeitsrecht, Kündigungsschutz, Regulierung, Deregulierung, Beschäftigungsform, Qualität der Arbeit |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J88 K31 |
| Date: | 2015–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201510&r=law |
| By: | Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka; Oliver Hart |
| Abstract: | Parties often regulate their relationships through “continuing” contracts that are neither long-term nor short-term but usually roll over. We study the trade-off between long-term, short-term, and continuing contracts in a two period model where gains from trade exist in the first period, and may or may not exist in the second period. A long-term contract that mandates trade in both periods is disadvantageous since renegotiation is required if there are no gains from trade in the second period. A short-term contract is disadvantageous since a new contract must be negotiated if gains from trade exist in the second period. A continuing contract can be better. In a continuing contract there is no obligation to trade in the second period but if there are gains from trade the parties will bargain “in good faith” using the first period contract as a reference point. This can reduce the cost of negotiating the next contract. Continuing contracts are not a panacea, however, since good faith bargaining may preclude the use of outside options in the bargaining process and as a result parties will sometimes fail to trade when this is efficient. |
| JEL: | D23 D86 K12 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21005&r=law |