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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Andre Mancha |
| Abstract: | I describe how monitoring and harsher law enforcement reduce the expected economic benefits of crime. I investigate the effect of shifts in legal authorities' surveillance by focusing on junkyards, firms often associated with illegal markets and auto theft. Starting in 2014, many municipalities in Brazil increased the monitoring of spare parts sold by junkyards through new regulations at the state level. I show that levels of auto theft dropped significantly after introduction of the new law, and this decrease is more extensive in neighbourhoods containing junkyards. |
| Keywords: | Law enforcement, Crime, Regulation, Law |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-118&r=law |
| By: | Doh-Shin Jeon; Yassine Lefouili; Leonardo Madio |
| Abstract: | We study a platformâs incentives to delist IP-infringing products and the effects of holding the platform liable for the presence of such products on innovation and consumer welfare. For a given number of buyers, platform liability increases innovation by reducing the competitive pressure faced by innovative products. However, there can be a misalignment of interests between innovators and buyers. Furthermore, platform liability can have unintended consequences, which overturn the intended effect on innovation. Platform liability tends to increase (decrease) innovation and consumer welfare when the elasticity of participation of innovators is high (low) and that of buyers is low (high). |
| Keywords: | platform, liability, intellectual property, innovation |
| JEL: | K40 K42 K13 L13 L22 L86 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9984&r=law |
| By: | Raphael Bruce; Alexsandros Cavgias, Luis Meloni |
| Abstract: | How does territorial control by organized crime groups affect the enforcement of public policies? We answer this question by studying the enforcement of social distancing policies in Rio de Janeiro during the COVID-19 crisis. Two criminal groups with distinct governance have de facto control over several areas of the city: drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and paramilitary groups (PGs). While the former funds itself mainly through the drug business, where their consumer base lives outside their turfs, the second obtains most of its profits from extortion and illegal commerce of public services to citizens within their territories. This induces different responses to policies that reduce economic activity, such as those enacted in the pandemic. To answer our main question, we estimate difference-in-differences specifications that compare social distancing before and after the outbreak in areas with and without territorial control by these groups. We document that in areas controlled by PGs, distancing was smaller than in government-ruled areas. On the other hand, DTOs’ turfs had similar social distancing to places controlled by the government. Our results suggest that the effect of organized crime on the enforcement of public policies depends on their form of criminal governance. |
| Keywords: | Organized crime; policy enforcement; state capacity; COVID-19 |
| JEL: | K42 I12 O17 R50 |
| Date: | 2022–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2022wpecon22&r=law |
| By: | Bhupatiraju,Sandeep; Chen,Daniel Li; Joshi,Shareen; Neis,Peter Konstantin |
| Abstract: | Bihar is widely regarded as one of India’s poorest and most divided states. It has also been the site of many social movements that have left indelible marks on the state’s politics and identity. Little is currently known about how structural inequalities have affected the functioning of formal systems of justice in the state. This paper uses a novel dataset of more than one million cases filed at the Patna high court between 2009 and 2019 together with a variety of supplementary data to analyze the role of religion, caste and gender in the high court of Bihar. The analysis finds that the courts are not representative of the Bihari population. Muslims, women and scheduled castes are consistently under-represented. The practice of using “caste neutral†names is on the rise. Though there is little evidence of “matching†between judges and petitioners or judges and filing advocates on the basis of names, there is evidence that petitioners and their advocates match on the basis of identity such as the use of “caste neutral†names. These results suggest that the social movements that disrupted existing social structures in the past may have inadvertently created new social categories that reinforce networks and inequalities in the formal justice system. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Judicial System Reform,Educational Sciences,Labor Markets,Employment and Unemployment |
| Date: | 2021–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9555&r=law |
| By: | Watzinger, Martin (University of Muenster and CEPR); Schnitzer, Monika (LMU Munich and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of the 1984 breakup of the Bell System on the rate, diversity, and direction of US innovation. In the antitrust case leading to the breakup, AT&T, the holding company of the Bell System, was accused of using exclusionary practices against competitors. The breakup was intended to end these practices. After the breakup, the scale and diversity of telecommunications innovation increased. Total patenting by US inventors related to telecommunications increased by 19%, driven by companies unrelated to the Bell System. Patenting by Bell's successor companies decreased, but not the number of top inventions. |
| Keywords: | antitrust, innovation, diversity, exclusionary practices |
| JEL: | O30 K21 L40 |
| Date: | 2022–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:341&r=law |
| By: | Robertson,Raymond |
| Abstract: | Deepening preferential trade agreements extend coverage to social issues, including labor clauses. While there is a long history of debate over the intent of labor clauses, less is known about the impact of labor clauses. Recent studies show that labor clauses improve working conditions, but the impact on trade flows is still debated. Existing studies do not include a full set of fixed effects (to control for endogeneity and unobserved confounding factors), other dimensions of deep agreements that could be correlated with labor clauses (tariffs and other “deep†clauses), and pseudo-Poisson maximum likelihood estimation. This paper combines all three with additional robustness checks. While the estimated effect of trade agreements is positive overall, the estimated marginal relationship between labor clauses and trade volume is generally negative but varies with the type of clauses. Freedom of Association, Forced and Child Labor, and International Labor Standards are consistently associated with higher trade flows. Clauses that are more likely to eliminate illicit trade, including clauses related to discrimination, protection of working conditions, and third-party monitoring exhibit a negative marginal relationship with trade flows. |
| Keywords: | International Trade and Trade Rules,Work&Working Conditions,Trade and Services,Legislation,Legal Products,Labor Law,Social Policy,Regulatory Regimes,Legal Reform,Labor&Employment Law,Judicial System Reform,Child Labor Law,Labor Standards,Labor Markets,Rural Labor Markets,Child Labor |
| Date: | 2021–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9599&r=law |
| By: | Araki, Satoshi (OECD); Bassanini, Andrea (OECD); Green, Andrew (OECD); Marcolin, Luca (OECD); Volpin, Cristina (OECD) |
| Abstract: | Drawing upon data from the largest cross-country study of labor market concentration to date, this paper analyzes the level of concentration of labor input markets in Europe and North America and provides a comparative perspective on employers' monopsony power. It explores the characteristics of monopsony in labor markets and documents its impact by looking at the magnitude of employer concentration in selected jurisdictions. Using a harmonized dataset of online vacancies, this paper shows that European labor markets are no more competitive than North American ones. It also supports the view that the effects of concentration on labor markets are broadly similar in both Europe and North America, despite the much stronger labor market institutions in Europe. The article shows that there is no apparent economic or legal justification for a lack of enforcement activity by European competition authorities in labor markets relative to the US. While enforcement action has picked up in the last two years in Europe, there is likely still scope for a significant increase in the role of competition enforcement in labor markets. The article identifies sectors and practices that may be scrutinized with priority by European competition authorities and proposes a mix of enforcement, merger control and well-targeted policy and regulatory solutions to address employers' monopsony power. |
| Keywords: | labour market concentration, monopsony, cross-country comparison, competition enforcement |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J42 L40 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15641&r=law |
| By: | Sekou Keita; Thomas Renault; Jérôme Valette |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses whether the systematic disclosure of criminals’ origins in the press affects natives’ attitudes towards immigration. It takes advantage of the unilateral change in reporting policy announced by the German newspaper Sächsische Zeitung in July, 2016. Combining individual-level panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2014 to 2018 with 402,819 crime-related articles in German newspapers and those newspapers’ market shares, we find that systematically mentioning the origins of criminals increases the relative salience of natives’ criminality and reduces natives’ concerns about immigration, breaking the implicit link between immigration and crime. |
| Keywords: | Immigration;Crime;Media Bias |
| JEL: | F22 K42 L82 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2022-10&r=law |
| By: | Panman,Alexandra Patricia; Lozano Gracia,Nancy |
| Abstract: | Land titling has been a policy priority for developing country cities for decades. In Sub-Saharan Africa and across the world, tenure formalization has been promoted as a tool to improve the quality and value of urban housing. The track record of these projects, however, has generally been disappointing. Why is this? This paper argues that project design has paid too little attention to contextual features of land markets in estimating the benefits of formalization to individual households. The paper draws on evidence from a case study city — Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — to show that in cities where broader property rights institutions are incomplete and informal sources of tenure security are strong, formal property rights may not be valued by households. This raises questions about the households’ willingness to pay for regularization and suggests that complementary strategies to build trust in government and consolidate public benefits of titling will be needed to ensure that projects have a beneficial impact. |
| Keywords: | Municipal Management and Reform,Urban Housing,Urban Housing and Land Settlements,Urban Governance and Management,Regulatory Regimes,Legislation,Legal Reform,Social Policy,Common Property Resource Development,Legal Products,Judicial System Reform,Agricultural Economics,Hydrology,Energy Policies&Economics |
| Date: | 2021–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9580&r=law |
| By: | Chander,Anupam; Abraham,Meaza; Chandy,Sandeep; Fang,Yuan; Park,Dayoung; Yu,Isabel |
| Abstract: | Is privacy a luxury for the rich world? Remarkably, there is a dearth of literature evaluating whether data privacy is too costly for companies to implement, or too expensive for governments to enforce. This paper is the first to offer a review of surveys of costs of compliance, and to summarize national budgets for enforcement. The study shows that while privacy may indeed prove costly for companies to implement, it is not too costly for governments to enforce. This study will help inform governments as they fashion and implement privacy laws to address the “privacy enforcement gap†—the disparity between the privacy on the books, and the privacy on the ground. |
| Keywords: | Information Security&Privacy,ICT Applications,Health Care Services Industry,International Trade and Trade Rules |
| Date: | 2021–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9594&r=law |
| By: | W. Benedikt Schmal |
| Abstract: | Collusive practices of firms continue to be a major threat to competition and consumer welfare. Academic research on this topic aims at understanding the economic drivers and behavioral patterns of cartels, among others, to guide competition authorities on how to tackle them. Utilizing topical machine learning techniques in the domain of natural language processing enables me to analyze the publications on this issue over more than 20 years in a novel way. Coming from a stylized oligopoly-game theory focus, researchers recently turned toward empirical case studies of bygone cartels. Uni- and multivariate time series analyses reveal that the latter did not supersede the former but filled a gap the decline in rule-based reasoning has left. Together with a tendency towards monocultures in topics covered and an endogenous constriction of the topic variety, the course of cartel research has changed notably: The variety of subjects included has grown, but the pluralism in economic questions addressed is in descent. It remains to be seen whether this will benefit or harm the cartel detection capabilities of authorities in the future. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2210.02957&r=law |
| By: | Sviatschi,Maria Micaela; Trako,Iva |
| Abstract: | In many developing countries, access to justice remains unequal, especially for women. What are the implications of this inequality for gender-based violence and investment in children? This paper provides evidence from Peru’s women’s justice centers (WJCs), which are specialized institutions that provide police, medical, and legal services to reduce gender-based violence. Examining the gradual rollout of WJCs across districts and villages, the study finds that the opening of a center reduces the incidence of gender-based violence, as measured by domestic violence, female deaths due to aggression, and hospitalizations due to mental health, by about 10 percent. This decrease in women’s exposure to violence has intergenerational effects: WJCs substantially increase human capital investments in children, raising enrollment, attendance, and test scores. The evidence suggests that these results are driven by an increase in enforcement against gender violence. After a WJC opens, there is an increase in reporting and prosecutions of gender-specific crimes. |
| Keywords: | Social Conflict and Violence,Gender and Development,Social Cohesion,Judicial System Reform |
| Date: | 2021–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9624&r=law |
| By: | Li,Yue - ETICI; Sinha Roy,Sutirtha |
| Abstract: | Many governments in developing countries have pursued policies targeting specific geographic areas over the past several decades. However, only a few have rigorously evaluated the causal impact of these interventions. This paper examines the effectiveness of a prominent place-based policy in India: the centrally sponsored New Industrial Policy for the state of Uttarakhand. Using georeferenced economic census data, the analysis applies a boundary discontinuity research design and zones in on the unique border between Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, two states that were officially one before the implementation of the New Industrial Policy. The findings show that there was a significant and abrupt increase in employment at the town and village level when crossing the state border from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand after the full implementation of the New Industrial Policy. The conclusion even holds for firms within the same sector. The increase is mainly due to larger firm sizes and expansions into new industries. A main component of the New Industrial Policy was excise tax incentives for certain industries. The paper finds that the increase in cross-border employment is higher for sectors receiving excise tax incentives than others. Additionally, exploring spillovers between industries, the paper shows that, controlling for the direct effects, the sectors with labor requirements similar to those receiving excise tax incentives also experience an increase in employment. Finally, the growth in the number of firms in Uttar Pradesh close to the border remained stable before and after the New Industrial Policy, which suggests the results are not fully driven by firms relocating from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand. |
| Keywords: | Tax Policy,Macroeconomics and Economic Growth,Economic Policy, Institutions and Governance,Construction Industry,Pulp&Paper Industry,Plastics&Rubber Industry,Textiles, Apparel&Leather Industry,Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies,General Manufacturing,Food&Beverage Industry,Common Carriers Industry,Tax Law,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Taxation&Subsidies,Tax Administration,Public Sector Economics,Public Finance Decentralization and Poverty Reduction,Macro-Fiscal Policy,Legislation,Judicial System Reform,Foreign Trade Promotion and Regulation,Trade Law,Legal Reform,Social Policy,Regulatory Regimes,Legal Products |
| Date: | 2020–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9477&r=law |
| By: | Winkler,Stephen Joseph |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the literature on human trafficking with a focus on understanding how it is defined and measured and what factors contribute to or constrain the prevalence of human trafficking. It finds a growing consensus among scholars on the importance of distinguishing between coercive and non-coercive activity to prevent inflated statistics and misguided programs and policies. The paper summarizes the individual, societal, and institutional explanations for the prevalence of human trafficking. However, it also shows how imprecise definitions of human trafficking and a lack of data and analyses contribute to widespread uncertainty regarding the relative effects of anti-trafficking policies such as border and migration policies or laws on prostitution. The paper suggests several avenues for future research that could help clarify these policy debates and emphasizes the need for additional micro-level data collection and analysis. |
| Keywords: | Intelligent Transport Systems,Crime and Society,Social Conflict and Violence,Human Rights,Labor Standards,Rural Labor Markets,Labor Markets |
| Date: | 2021–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9623&r=law |
| By: | Koumenta, Maria; Pagliero, Mario; Rostam-Afschar, Davud |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J44 J71 J16 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc22:264033&r=law |
| By: | Nogues Comas,Antoni Albert; Mendes Dos Santos,Nuno Filipe |
| Abstract: | Given its size, public procurement matters for economic development. Transparency, competition, accountability, efficiency, and innovation are most commonly noted as guiding principles for achieving best value for money in public contracts. Yet, large-scale, frequently updated, and comparable data on public procurement processes are scarce. This paper presents the methodology and findings of a new global indicator that benchmarks public procurement regulations and practices across 191 economies. The indicator proposes three dimensions to measure the effective implementation of public procurement systems in practice, as applied to a standardized recurrent infrastructure (roads) contract. The three dimensions include the steps and associated time required to complete the procurement process, and the availability and sophistication of e-procurement platforms. A final, fourth component benchmarks the regulatory framework applicable to such contracts. Economies that score higher in the indicator are those with more effective governments, higher quality of roads, and smaller perceptions of corruption. Looking more closely at the scores along the four dimensions reveals that countries differ to a lesser extent in terms of regulatory practices, compared with the use of new technologies such as e-procurement, where considerable gaps between economies exist. |
| Keywords: | Judicial System Reform,Regulatory Regimes,Legal Products,Legal Reform,Social Policy,Legislation,Transport Services,Roads&Highways,Private Sector Economics,Public Finance Decentralization and Poverty Reduction,Public Financial Management,Public Sector Economics |
| Date: | 2021–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9651&r=law |
| By: | Chen,Rong - DECIG |
| Abstract: | A robust data governance regulatory environment, encompassing both safeguards that protect the rights of market players and enablers that facilitate use/reuse of data, provide an important foundation for trust in the data economy. This paper presents the methodology and findings from a Global Data Regulation Diagnostic. The Global Data Regulation diagnostic is a detailed assessment of laws and regulations on data governance, covering both safeguards and enablers for data governance across 80 countries ranging from low to high income groups. Diagnostic results show that countries have put in greater effort in adopting enabling regulations than regulatory safeguards. However, the development of both enablers and safeguards remains at an intermediate stage: only 41 percent of good practices for safeguards and 47 percent for enablers have been adopted across countries. The diagnostic identifies gaps in the regulatory framework across several important dimensions including safeguards for personal and nonpersonal data, cross-border data flows and cybersecurity, as well as enablers for public and private intent data, as well as e-commerce. While higher income countries are typically more advanced than their lower income counterparts, significant gaps nonetheless remain in the regulatory framework for data across all income groups. |
| Date: | 2021–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9615&r=law |
| By: | Josef Taalbi |
| Abstract: | A long-standing discussion is to what extent patents can be used to monitor trends in innovation activity. This study quantifies the amount and quality of information about actual innovation contained in the patent system, based on 4,460 Swedish innovations (1970-2015) that have been matched to international patents. The results show that most innovations were not patented and that among those that were, 43.9% of all innovations, only a fraction can be identified with patent quality data. The best-performing models identify 17% of all information about innovations, equivalent to an information loss of at least 83%. Econometric tests also show that the fraction of innovations responding to strengthened patent laws during the period were on average 8% percent. The overlap between the patent and innovation systems is hence more modest than often assumed. This accentuates the need to, alongside patents, develop versatile approaches in order to induce and monitor various aspects of innovation. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2210.04102&r=law |
| By: | Rey, Patrick; Spiegel, Yossi; Stahl, Konrad |
| Abstract: | Growing concern about the market power of big tech giants has led to renewed interest in predatory behavior. We study the feasibility and prof- itability of predation in a dynamic environment, using a parsimonious infinite- horizon, complete information setting in which an incumbent repeatedly faces potential entry. When a rival enters, the incumbent chooses whether to ac- commodate or predate it; the entrant then decides whether to stay or exit. We show that there always exists a Markov perfect equilibrium, which can be of three types: accommodation, monopolization, and recurrent predation. We then analyze and compare the welfare effects of different antitrust policies. |
| JEL: | D43 L41 |
| Date: | 2022–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:127458&r=law |