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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Kalyagin Grigory (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University) |
| Abstract: | This article discusses the principle of proportionality of the severity of punishment to social damage from an offense from the point of view of law and economics. A review of various criminological approaches to assessing social damage from crimes of various types is made. It is concluded that it is not possible to measure this damage in any particular case with any accuracy. As a basis for establishing the severity of punishment in proportion to the social damage from a crime, the methodology proposed by Sellin and Wolfgang (Sellin and Wolfgang, 1964) for rating the severity of crimes based on sociological surveys is effective and sufficient. |
| Keywords: | crime; severity of punishment; public damage; principle of proportionality; damage assessment |
| JEL: | K14 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upa:wpaper:0042&r=law |
| By: | Lydia Cheung (Auckland University of Technology); Philip Gunby (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | We use seasonal ARIMA methods to study the imposition and removal of national uniform social distancing restrictions in response to Covid-19 in New Zealand for six crime types in six cities. We then use the estimated models to forecast counterfactual crime trajectories. Novel elements include cleanly defined lockdown periods, two dis- tinct lockdowns with meaningful gaps between them, and sizeable periods after each one to allow for dynamics. We find that social restrictions initially lower offending, subsequent lockdowns have smaller impacts on offending, “bounce back” occurs in criminal offending after their removal, and bounce back is faster from subsequent lockdowns. |
| JEL: | C22 H75 K14 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:2023-03&r=law |
| By: | Julia Godfrey (University of Rochester); Kegon Teng Kok Tan (University of Rochester); Mariyana Zapryanova (Smith College) |
| Abstract: | Parole is a major part of a prisoner's interaction with the criminal justice system, and is linked to long-run prisoner outcomes. Using data from the state of Georgia, we exploit the fact that prisoners are randomly allocated to parole board members to recover the effect of parole board racial composition on prisoner outcomes. We find that a higher proportion of Black members on the parole board is associated with better parole outcomes and lower 3-year recidivism rates for Black prisoners. Further, we document that the Black-White gap in parole violation rates, conditional on measures of parole success, closes when the parole board gains a Black member. Taken together, we argue that this is consistent with a reduction in discrimination against Black inmates with regard to parole decisions. |
| Keywords: | prison release, parole board, racial bias |
| JEL: | H76 K40 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2023-011&r=law |
| By: | CARR, Joel |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence of the impact of protests following the death of George Floyd on anti-Black and anti-White hate crimes in the US. Using a regression discontinuity in time model, difference-in-differences, and synthetic control methods we find that recorded anti-Black (-White) hate crime increased by up to 15 (4) incidents per day or 259 (165) percent in June 2020. To account for changes in incentives to commit hate crimes during the coronavirus pandemic we control for other hate crime biases. We find that changes in unemployment due to the pandemic is a significant mediating factor in the hate crime shock against both groups and a larger shock in the first weeks of the protests in counties with a first BLM protest after Floyd’s death. In addition, we test for mechanisms driving the changes, including retaliation, protectionism, and changes in victim reporting. Anti-Black hate crime is more sensitive to saliency of opposition to protests, “White genocide”, and Derek Chauvin measured by tweets but less sensitive to cable news reporting. Using crime victimization survey we find that White hate crime victims were more likely to report victimization during the protests and evidence that police reduced effort toward Black hate crime victims and increased arrests of anti-White hate crime offenders. The results suggest that large scale protests or conflict between two groups during periods of increase in unemployment can lead to a substantial increase in expressed xenophobia. |
| Keywords: | Racism, Hate crime, Crime |
| JEL: | J15 K14 D74 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2022008&r=law |
| By: | Juan Andrés Cabral |
| Keywords: | hotspots, crimes, spatial |
| JEL: | C21 K14 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4445&r=law |
| By: | Klaus M. Miller; Bernd Skiera |
| Abstract: | In recent years, European regulators have debated restricting the time an online tracker can track a user to protect consumer privacy better. Despite the significance of these debates, there has been a noticeable absence of any comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. This article fills this gap on the cost side by suggesting an approach to estimate the economic consequences of lifetime restrictions on cookies for publishers. The empirical study on cookies of 54, 127 users who received 128 million ad impressions over 2.5 years yields an average cookie lifetime of 279 days, with an average value of EUR 2.52 per cookie. Only 13% of all cookies increase their daily value over time, but their average value is about four times larger than the average value of all cookies. Restricting cookies lifetime to one year (two years) decreases their lifetime value by 25% (19%), which represents a decrease in the value of all cookies of 9% (5%). In light of the EUR 10.60 billion cookie-based display ad revenue in Europe, such restrictions would endanger EUR 904 million (EUR 576 million) annually, equivalent to EUR 2.08 (EUR 1.33) per EU internet user. The article discusses these results' marketing strategy challenges and opportunities for advertisers and publishers. |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2303.09147&r=law |
| By: | Richard N. Langlois (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | The framework of modular systems articulated in Design Rules can be applied in the larger setting of social institutions. The principles of encapsulation and information hiding operate in society as mechanisms to internalize externalities. This essay focuses on intangible externalities, or “moralisms, ” that involve the transmission across module boundaries of pure information rather than materials or energy. Such intangible externalities arise in the practice of identity, the affiliations through which individuals create and define their sense of self. Both formally and informally, individuals tend to modularize themselves into identity groups in order to minimize the costs of the intangible externalities that identities impose on one another. One important way to reduce conflict among identity groups is to create a governance structure in which some interactions are proscribed – the constitutional diagonal. In the end, because of the inherent incompatibilities – the non-modular interactions – between identities that arise inevitably from the very meaning and function of identity, genuine toleration is possible only through the increased standardization of identities. The essay applies these ideas to the problems facing large social networks like Facebook. |
| JEL: | D02 D23 D71 D74 K11 P14 P16 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2022-12r&r=law |
| By: | Roger Martini |
| Abstract: | Regulations are an important part of the policy toolkit governments can use to address climate and environmental objectives in agriculture. This report reviews existing literature on the characteristics and assessment of environmental regulations in agriculture. It finds that direct evidence on the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental regulations is generally limited and situation-specific. However, a taxonomy that classifies and organises information on regulations can give a sense of their number, the environmental domains covered, and the scope and depth of their application. This is potentially useful with respect to measuring progress on international commitments for action on climate change mitigation and other analysis. |
| Keywords: | Agriculture, Climate change, Environment |
| JEL: | K23 Q18 Q28 Q58 |
| Date: | 2023–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:194-en&r=law |