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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Blesse, Sebastian; Diegmann, André |
| Abstract: | Does the administrative organization of police affect crime? In answering this question, we focus on the reorganization of local police agencies. Specifically, we study the effects police force reallocation via station closures has on local crime. We do this by exploiting a quasiexperiment where a reform substantially reduced the number of police stations. Combining a matching strategy with an event-study design, we find no effects on total theft. Police station closures, however, open up tempting opportunities for criminals in car theft and burglary in residential properties. We can rule out that our effects arise from incapacitation, crime displacement, or changes in employment of local police forces. Our results suggest that criminals are less deterred after police station closures and use the opportunity to steal more costly goods. |
| Keywords: | Crime,Policing,Crime Deterrence,Police Station Closures |
| JEL: | K42 R53 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:svrwwp:072019&r=all |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S.; Saraiva, Joana |
| Abstract: | Abstract: How much value does collective bargaining add to the working conditions already established in general labour law? In this paper we propose a methodology to address this question: we compare the specific contents of collective agreements (except minimum wages) to their equivalent norms set by base law. We illustrate this approach by analysing in detail about 400 norms from six collective agreements in Portugal and then comparing them to the country’s Labour Code. We find that as many as 62% of those collective bargaining norms are exactly or virtually equal to the Labour Code; only 25% (an average of 16 norms per convention) are more favourable for the worker; and 12% (8) are more favourable for the employer. We conclude that collective bargaining in Portugal has a relatively small role as a source of effective labour law. We also present several potential explanations for our findings, including the wide range of base law, which may reduce the negotiating space of bargaining. |
| Keywords: | Labour law,Working conditions,Collective agreements |
| JEL: | J52 K31 J81 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:406&r=all |
| By: | Dirk Czarnitzki; Kristof Van Criekingen |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the economic literature on patent litigation by taking a new perspective. In the past, scholars mostly focused on specific litigation cases at the patent level and related technological characteristics to the event of litigation. However, observing IP disputes suggests that not only technological characteristics may trigger litigation suits, but also the market positions of firms, and that firms dispute not only about single patents but often about portfolios. Consequently, this paper examines the occurrence of IP litigation cases in Belgian firms using the 2013 Community Innovation Survey with supplemental information on IP litigation and patent portfolios. The rich survey information regarding firms’ general innovation strategies enables us to introduce market-related variables such as sales with new products as well as sales based mainly on imitation and incremental innovation. Our results indicate that when controlling for firms’ IP portfolio, the composition of turnover in terms of innovations and imitations has additional explanatory power regarding litigation propensities. Firms with a high turnover from innovations are more likely to become plaintiffs in court. Contrastingly, firms with a high turnover from incremental innovation and imitation are more likely to become defendants in court, and, moreover, are more likely to negotiate settlements outside of court. |
| Keywords: | IP litigation, patenting, innovation, imitation |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:621964&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroon); Jacinta C. Nwachukwu (Preston, United Kingdom); Stella-Maris I. Orim (Coventry University, UK); Chris Pyke (Preston, United Kingdom) |
| Abstract: | Purpose-The study complements the scant macroeconomic literature on the development outcomes of social media by examining the relationship between Facebook penetration and violent crime levels in a cross-section of 148 countries for the year 2012. Design/methodology/approach-The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Tobit and Quantile regressions. In order to respond to policy concerns on the limited evidence on the consequences of social media in developing countries, the dataset is disaggregated into regions and income levels. The decomposition by income levels included: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income and high income. The corresponding regions include: Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Findings-From OLS and Tobit regressions, there is a negative relationship between Facebook penetration and crime. However, Quantile regressions reveal that the established negative relationship is noticeable exclusively in the 90th crime quantile. Further, when the dataset is decomposed into regions and income levels, the negative relationship is evident in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) while a positive relationship is confirmed for sub-Saharan Africa. Policy implications are discussed. Originality/value- Studies on the development outcomes of social media are sparse because of a lack of reliable macroeconomic data on social media. This study primarily complemented five existing studies that have leveraged on a newly available dataset on Facebook. |
| Keywords: | Crime; Social media; ICT; Global evidence; Social networks |
| JEL: | K42 D83 O30 D74 D83 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aby:wpaper:19/003&r=all |
| By: | Andrew Bacher-Hicks; Stephen B. Billings; David J. Deming |
| Abstract: | Schools face important policy tradeoffs in monitoring and managing student behavior. Strict discipline policies may stigmatize suspended students and expose them to the criminal justice system at a young age. On the other hand, strict discipline acts as a deterrent and limits harmful spillovers of misbehavior onto other students. This paper estimates the net impact of school discipline on student achievement, educational attainment and adult criminal activity. Using exogenous variation in school assignment caused by a large and sudden boundary change and a supplementary design based on principal switches, we show that schools with higher suspension rates have substantial negative long-run impacts. Students assigned to a school that has a one standard deviation higher suspension rate are 15 to 20 percent more likely to be arrested and incarcerated as adults. We also find negative impacts on educational attainment. The negative impacts of attending a high suspension school are largest for males and minorities. |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26257&r=all |
| By: | Colonnelli, E; Prem, M |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal real economic effects of a randomized anti- corruption crackdown on local governments in Brazil over the period 2003-2014. After anti-corruption audits, municipalities experience an increase in economic ac- tivity concentrated in sectors most dependent on government relationships. These effects spill over to nearby municipalities and are larger when the audits are covered by the media. Back-of-the-envelope estimates suggest that $1 away from corrup- tion generates more than $3 in local value added. Using administrative matched employer-employee and firm-level datasets and novel face-to-face firm surveys we argue that corruption mostly acts as a barrier to entry, and by introducing costs and distortions on local government-dependent firms. The political misallocation of resources across firms plays a seemingly secondary role, indicating that at the local level most rents are captured by politicians and public officials rather than firms. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, firms, audits |
| JEL: | D73 H83 D22 |
| Date: | 2019–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:017430&r=all |
| By: | Schaubert, Marianna |
| Abstract: | The present paper investigates how parents responsible for child maintenance payments have responded to changes in the amount of obligations. The potential endogeneity of child support obligations is addressed by using SOEP panel data from 1985-2013 and applying individual FE-IV models. Results for parents younger than 50 years old show that a euro 10 increase in monthly child support obligations decreases the likelihood of having an additional child by about 0.39 percentage points (about 3% at the sample mean). Furthermore, an increase in financial obligations does not have an impact on the likelihood of cohabiting with a new partner or on hours spent with children entitled to child support. There is only weak evidence of a positive (re)marriage incentive. There seems to be no adjustment in the parent's labor supply. To my knowledge, the present investigation is the first causal analysis of the behavioral response of non-resident parents to child support obligations in Germany. |
| Keywords: | Child support,Child support policy,Non-resident parents,Labor Supply,Childcare |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J16 K36 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:203675&r=all |
| By: | Blanche Segrestin (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Armand Hatchuel (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Ken Starkey |
| Abstract: | Can value allocation be left to managerial discretion and does corporate law provide the basis for a balanced stakeholder management and a fair allocation of results? This question is central in an age of inequality. We argue that it can be reappraised by building upon the case of maritime law. Whereas in corporate law, the board is in charge of allocating the results, maritime stipulates a clear ex ante rule when it allows a captain to sacrifice some goods to save the ship: the historical "rule of general averages" has emerged in Antiquity. It compels the interested parties to bear jointly the costs. This rule makes visible what we call a "partnering effect" of managerial authority and suggests that corporate law, as it currently stands, lacks a conceptualization of managerial discretion and therefore limits the possibility of a fair allocation of results. While management scholars have sought to rethink management theory with a "view from law" (Lan & Heracleous, 2010), we conclude that law could also be discussed with a view from management history. |
| Keywords: | Stakeholder theory,managerial discretion,value allocation,corporate law,managerial authority,partnering effect,fairness |
| Date: | 2019–08–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02281514&r=all |
| By: | Daniel P. Gross |
| Abstract: | Collusion is widely condemned for its negative effects on consumer welfare and market efficiency. In this paper, I show that collusion may also in some cases facilitate the creation of unexpected new sources of value. I bring this possibility into focus through the lens of a historical episode from the 19th century, when colluding railroads in the U.S. South converted 13,000 miles of railroad track to standard gauge over the course of two days in 1886, integrating the South into the national transportation network. Route-level freight traffic data reveal that the gauge change caused a large shift in market share from steamships to railroads, but did not affect total shipments or prices on these routes. Guided by these results, I develop a model of compatibility choice in a collusive market and argue that collusion may have enabled the gauge change to take place as it did, while also tempering the effects on prices and total shipments. |
| JEL: | F14 F15 L15 L41 L92 N71 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26261&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroon); Joseph Nnanna (The Development Bank of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the determinants of and persistence in access to weapons using a global sample of 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). Hysteresis in access to weapons is consistently more apparent in countries with below-median levels in access to weapons, compared to their counterparts with above-median levels in access to weapons. The hysteresis hypothesis within this context is the propensity of past values of access to weapons to influence future values of access to weapons. Factors that consistently drive access to weapons are: perceptions of crime; criminality; conflict intensity; political instability; military expenditure, violent demonstrations and terrorism. The effects of these drivers are contingent on initial levels of access to weapons. Policy recommendations for managing access to weapons are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Access to weapons; Global evidence; Persistence; Arms; Security |
| JEL: | H56 L64 K42 P50 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aby:wpaper:19/008&r=all |
| By: | Ahmet Ak (Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University) |
| Abstract: | Social state law has a need to regular fiscal source to maintain its sovereignty and to fulfill the duties the Constitution levies. Fort his reason, use of taxation power is a political obligation. The regulations related to tax concerns the whole society. Tax acts has a lot of features not included in other many acts. The most important one of these is that tax acts have to show a suitable change to the economic life altering constantly. In every society, if the rules found or created are not suitable to expectations, necessities and conditions of a society in a specified time period, the society makes them out of order eventually whatever compeller power of them is inflexible and decisive. While acts are prepared, it is compulsory to determine the real needs by observing the society studiously. Because tax acts have to be especially suitable to the fundamentals of moral and personal interest. In legislating, changing or annulment of tax acts, it has to be cared social structure, market conditions, and suitability to menatlity and beliefs of the society rather than concrete or abstract reasons. Otherwise, even force or sanctions becomes insufficient in obeying the law. In this study, it is aimed to search what sociologic factors are in legislation of acts and suitability of tax acts to social structure as is in other acts and to reveal tax acts by considering the regulations related to Turkish Personal Income Tax Act and literature review method is used as research method. |
| Keywords: | Keywors: Tax Law,Tax Acts,Social Structure and Taxes,Tax Law Designing,Tax Law Drafting,Income Tax |
| Date: | 2018–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02280384&r=all |
| By: | beg, Sabrin |
| Abstract: | I test the land and labor market effects of a property rights reform that computerized rural land records, and provided access to digitized records and automated transactions to agricultural landowners and cultivators in Pakistan. Using the staggered roll-out of the program, I find that while the reforms do not shift land ownership, landowning households are more likely to rent out land and lower their agricultural participation. At the same time, cultivating households have access to more land, as rented in land and overall farm size per cultivating household increases. Improved tenure security also shifts the type of rental contracts, and the input choices of cultivators. Aggregate district level data suggests an improvement in overall crop yield. These results have implications for both the allocation of land across farmers and the selection of labor into farming. |
| Keywords: | Property Rights, Rural Mobility, Agricultural Land Markets, ICT in Development, Institutions |
| JEL: | O1 O10 O12 O13 |
| Date: | 2019–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96110&r=all |
| By: | Christopher F Baum (Boston College; DIW Berlin); Erika Sabbath (Boston College); Summer Sherburne Hawkins (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | Nearly 40,000 people in the U.S. die from firearm-related causes annually. Of these, about 1% are intentionally shot and killed while at work; work-related homicides account for about 10% of all workplace fatalities. While firearm policies have remained essentially unchanged at the national level, there is greater variation in state-level gun control legislation. Moreover, the gun control landscape between and within states has changed considerably over the past 10 years. Little recent work has focused on determinants or epidemiology of workplace homicide. The purpose of this study is to test whether changes in state-level gun control policies are associated with changes in state-level workplace homicide rates. Our analysis shows that stronger gun-control policies, particularly around concealed carry permitting, background checks, and domestic violence, may be effective means of reducing work-related homicide. |
| Date: | 2019–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:usug19:08&r=all |
| By: | Tal Gross; Raymond Kluender; Feng Liu; Matthew J. Notowidigdo; Jialan Wang |
| Abstract: | A more generous consumer bankruptcy system provides greater insurance against financial risks, but it may also raise the cost of credit to consumers. We study this trade-off using the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which raised the costs of filing for bankruptcy. We identify the effects of BAPCPA on borrowing costs by exploiting variation in the effects of the reform on bankruptcy risk across credit-score segments. Using a combination of administrative records, credit reports, and proprietary market-research data, we find that the reform reduced bankruptcy filings, and reduced the likelihood that an uninsured hospitalization received bankruptcy relief by 70 percent. BAPCPA led to a decrease in credit card interest rates, with an implied pass-through rate of 60–75 percent. Overall, BAPCPA decreased the gap in offered interest rates between prime and subprime consumers by roughly 10 percent. |
| JEL: | D14 G21 G28 K35 L13 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26254&r=all |