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on Law and Economics |
| By: | John Biggins (UCD College of Social Sciences & Law and Irish State Administration Database, University College Dublin; Maynooth University) |
| Abstract: | The establishment of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) in 1922 did not occur on a blank canvas. A slew of administrative bodies and agencies with pre-1922 origins now found themselves under a new jurisdiction, still familiar in some respects but alien in others. The Irish State Administration Database (ISAD) indicates that the functions performed by these pre-1922 bodies ranged from the delivery of specific services to sectoral regulation. The resilience of pre-1922 bodies arguably ensured a greater degree of day-to-day administrative continuity and stability after 1922 than may otherwise have been the case.This paper focuses on a particular subset of these pre-1922 entities - royal chartered bodies - carried into Saorstát Éireann and beyond. Of special interest are the peculiar legal mechanisms through which these bodies were sustained in an altered constitutional landscape. The discontinuation, at least explicitly, of a pre-1922 royal prerogative to grant and amend royal charters presented legal conundrums for royal chartered bodies and the State. These conundrums were mitigated by a mixture of tailored public and private legislation of the Oireachtas. These dynamics are interrogated through the lenses of temporality and legal pluralism. Post-1922 Irish Governments sought an accommodation with royal chartered bodies, themselves conceived under a variant common law system predating the emergent Irish State. Faced with a temporal collision between alternative conceptions of common law authority rooted in different moments in time, the State ultimately chose to co-opt royal chartered bodies. It is argued here that this was achieved by transitioning royal chartered bodies to the legal timeline of the new State. The success of this operation is attested by the fact that a number of these bodies remain important today in discharging functions with public impacts. These dynamics are amplified using a case study of a particular royal chartered body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. |
| Keywords: | Public Administration; Royal Charters; Legal Pluralism; Legislation |
| JEL: | H83 K49 K15 |
| Date: | 2023–03–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:202303&r=law |
| By: | Costas Meghir (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Marten Palme (Stockholm University); Marieke Schnabel (University College London) |
| Abstract: | We study the intergenerational effect of education policy on crime. We use Swedish administrative data that links outcomes across generations with crime records and we show that the comprehensive school reform, gradually implemented between 1949 and 1962, reduced conviction rates both for the generation directly affected by the reform and for their sons. The reduction in conviction rates occurred across many types of crime. Key mediators for this reduction in the child generation are an increase in education and a decline in crime amongst their fathers. |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2356&r=law |
| By: | Buil-Gil, David (University of Manchester); Trajtenberg, Nicolas; Aebi, Marcelo F. |
| Abstract: | Cybercrime is on the rise, and so is the need to systematically analyze its prevalence, distribution, causes, and consequences. While official records (mainly police, prosecution and court statistics) provide important information to explore online crime, they have been subject to extensive criticism due to the presence of measurement error arising from the combined influences of victims’ underreporting and recording practices. Consequently, researchers, crime analysts and policy makers are increasingly relying on estimates of cybercrime and cyberdeviance based on surveys. This chapter reviews the measures of cybercrime and cyberdeviance included in national crime surveys, including household and business victimization surveys and self-report offending surveys. The chapter describes, categorizes and compares measures included in surveys, and discusses opportunities and limitations to generate reliable and valid estimates to study cybercrime and cyberdeviance. Measures included in surveys do not capture the diversity of criminal and deviant behaviors that take place online, and some surveys only probe about certain frauds that may take place both on and offline. The chapter identifies opportunities for researchers to utilize existing data to advance our understanding of online victimization and offending, and provides methodological recommendations to improve the recording of cybercrime and cyberdeviance in existing surveys. |
| Date: | 2023–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:r8ygd&r=law |
| By: | Mariona Mas-Montserrat; Céline Colin; Eugénie Ribault; Bert Brys |
| Abstract: | Presumptive tax regimes, also known as simplified tax regimes, simplify the tax compliance process for micro and small businesses. By reducing tax compliance costs and levying lower tax rates compared to the standard tax system, these regimes aim at encouraging business formalisation and compliance. They are particularly useful in situations where actual taxable income is difficult to quantify as a taxpayer’s tax base is determined using alternative indicators. Although these regimes exist in many tax systems, they vary greatly in their design. This OECD working paper provides an analytical framework for characterising and comparing these regimes. It also highlights key design aspects that deserve further consideration and lists a series of best practices on the design and administration of these regimes. |
| Keywords: | micro and small business taxation, presumptive tax regimes, simplified tax regimes, tax policy design |
| JEL: | H25 |
| Date: | 2023–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ctpaaa:59-en&r=law |
| By: | Alessio Tartaro; Adam Leon Smith; Patricia Shaw |
| Abstract: | Regulations and standards in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are necessary to minimise risks and maximise benefits, yet some argue that they stifle innovation. This paper critically examines the idea that regulation stifles innovation in the field of AI. Current trends in AI regulation, particularly the proposed European AI Act and the standards supporting its implementation, are discussed. Arguments in support of the idea that regulation stifles innovation are analysed and criticised, and an alternative point of view is offered, showing how regulation and standards can foster innovation in the field of AI. |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2302.04110&r=law |
| By: | Simon Buechler; Elena Lutz |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of relaxing land-use regulation on housing supply and rents at the local intra-city level. Constructing a theoretical framework based on the monocentric city model, we obtain theoretical predictions on these effects. Our framework shows that relaxing floor-to-area (FAR) restrictions lead to higher local housing supply and lower rents across the entire city, with no difference in rents between treated and non-treated areas. To bring our conceptual framework to the data, we use detailed geo-coded data from the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland from 1995 to 2020. We apply a staggered difference-in-difference model, exploiting exogenous differences in the treatment timing as identifying variation. We find that upzoning a parcel by 20% or more leads to a 13% increase in housing supply on the treated parcel in the subsequent ten years. Furthermore, changes in zoning do not significantly increase or lower rents on the treated parcels compared to the untreated parcels within the same housing market, confirming the predictions of our framework. Thus, we show that upzoning is an effective policy for increasing the housing supply without increasing rents at the local level. |
| Keywords: | Housing Supply; Land use regulation; Rents; upzoning |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2022–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:2022_250&r=law |
| By: | Leona Maruyama (Graduate School of Economics, Keio University (Graduate student)) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical studies have investigated the effects of specific socioeconomic determinants on child maltreatment outcomes both inside and outside the United States, but these studies fail to consider either circumstances on a greater scale or current data that is applicable to the existing state of affairs. The present study introduces a multiple linear regression model based on recent state-level data which estimates a wide range of socioeconomic predictors that may significantly influence child maltreatment rates in the United States. Some of the findings include that overall poverty rate and the presence of a foster child or other unrelated child aggravates child maltreatment rates at the national level. Meanwhile, unemployment rate, higher education attainment, and children in single-parent households are found to be unrelated with child maltreatment outcomes. Results from the present study offer knowledge that is pertinent to evidence-based recommendations for existing welfare and intervention programs, for the purpose of reducing child maltreatment incidence rates nationwide. |
| Keywords: | child maltreatment, abuse, neglect, risk-factors, socioeconomic determinants |
| JEL: | I32 J13 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2023-003&r=law |
| By: | Emmanuelle Auriol (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Sara Biancini (ESSEC Business School and THEMA (UMR 8184) - Economics Department - Essec Business School - THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université); Rodrigo Paillacar (CY - CY Cergy Paris Université) |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes an empirical analysis of the determinants of the adoption of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and their impact on innovation in manufacturing. The analysis is conducted with panel data covering 112 countries. First we show that IPR protection is U-shaped with respect to a country's market size and inverse-U-shaped with respect to the aggregated market size of its trade partners. Second, reinforcing IPR protection reduces on-the-frontier and inside-the-frontier innovation in developing countries, without necessarily increasing innovation at the global level. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, Developing Countries, Market Potential, Trade |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03947266&r=law |
| By: | Julien Jacob (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Caroline Orset Orset (UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | This literature review sheds light on the role of marketing authorisations and liabilities in controlling industry lobby behaviour aimed at enhancing the lobbyists' private interest to the detriment of the public interest. We present two political tools available to public authorities, marketing authorisation and liabilities (civil and criminal) to regulate firms that market products that could be harmful to society. We draw on the economic literature and contributions that study how these policy tools can be used to achieve three main objectives: providing incentives for risk mitigation, fostering innovation and the acquisition of information on unclear risks, and avoiding collusion between public bodies and the companies being regulated. We conclude with a brief discussion of the areas that require more in-depth research on this topic. |
| Keywords: | Industry risks, Information acquisition, Innovation, Liability rules, Lobby, Scientific uncertainty |
| Date: | 2022–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03966054&r=law |
| By: | Dertwinkel-Kalt, Markus; Wey, Christian |
| Abstract: | We present a model to explain why a manufacturer may impose a minimum resale price (min RPM) in a successive monopoly setting. Our argument relies on the retailer having non-contractible choice variables, which could represent the price of a substitute good and/or the effort the retailer exerts for service provision or advertising. Our explanation for a min RPM is empirically distinguishable from alternative justifications for a min RPM that rely, for instance, on retailer competition and service free riding among retailers. Whether a min RPM benefits or harms consumers depends on-as we show-why a min RPM is implemented: if the goal is to soften competition with the substitute product, it tends to harm consumers, and if the goal is to secure service provision, it tends to benefit consumers. |
| Keywords: | Resale Price Maintenance, Vertical Restraints, Cost Pass-Through, Retailing |
| JEL: | L12 L41 D42 K21 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:395&r=law |
| By: | Tijmen Tuinsma (Leuven Economics of Education Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.); Kristof De Witte (Leuven Economics of Education Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium & UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.); Petr Janskı (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic); Miroslav Palanskı (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic); Vitezslav Titl (Leuven Economics of Education Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium & Utrecht University School of Economics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.) |
| Abstract: | Private Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) is a measure against tax avoidance by large multinationals, implemented throughout the EU in 2016. Multinational companies with an annual revenue over EUR 750 million have been required to report their global activities on a country-by-country basis to tax authorities. Using this cutoff in a sharp regression discontinuity design, we find causal evidence for an increase in effective tax rates for affected companies, indicating an increase in tax compliance. We estimate the increase in effective tax rates at 5 to 6 percentage points locally. However, significant cross-sectional variation is present: the most aggressive multinationals with tax haven affiliates are at most moderately affected, while almost the full effect is concentrated in medium-aggressive firms. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that while CbCR was effective in combating some forms of tax avoidance, profit shifting opportunities in tax havens mostly negate this effect. |
| Keywords: | corporate tax avoidance, tax havens, financial transparency |
| JEL: | F23 H25 H26 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2023_04&r=law |