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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Jonathan Colmer; Jennifer L. Doleac |
| Abstract: | Gun violence is a major problem in the United States, and extensive prior work has shown that higher temperatures increase violent behavior. In this paper, we consider whether restricting the concealed carry of firearms mitigates or exacerbates the effect of temperature on violence. We use two identification strategies that exploit daily variation in temperature and variation in gun control policies between and within states. Our findings suggest that more prohibitive concealed carry laws attenuate the temperature-homicide relationship. Additional results suggest that restrictions primarily decrease the lethality of temperature-driven violent crimes, rather than their overall occurrence, but may be less effective at reducing access to guns in more urban areas. |
| Keywords: | right-to-carry, temperature, crime, homicide |
| JEL: | K42 Q51 I18 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10525&r=law |
| By: | Stefania Fontana |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the anti-mafia dismissal policy in municipal councils for mafia infiltration on the share of public goods in Italy. The implementation of policies aimed at reducing the mafia’s influence on local political bodies can improve the level of essential public goods that are relevant for social inclusion and regional development. The results suggest that during the years after a dismissal, municipalities devote more resources to public goods, with an estimated increase of approximately 5.3 pp. Notably, the effect seems to be driven by an increase in investment of approximately 5.4 pp, whereas the effect on consumption is uncertain. We therefore conclude that policies targeting the problem of criminal infiltration in local governments can improve socioeconomic conditions by enhancing the level of economically and socially relevant local public goods. |
| Keywords: | anti-mafia policies, mafia infiltration, public goods, local governments |
| JEL: | K42 H41 H75 D04 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0272&r=law |
| By: | Manuel Coelho; Jos\'e Ant\'onio Filipe; Manuel Alberto M. Ferreira |
| Abstract: | Monitoring and enforcement considerations have been largely forgotten in the study of fishery management. This paper discusses this issue through a model formalization to show the impacts of costly, imperfect enforcement of law on the behavior of fishing firms and fisheries management. Theoretical analysis merges a standard bio-economic model of fisheries (Gordon-Schaefer) with Becker theory of Crime and Punishment. |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2306.16960&r=law |
| By: | Pedro H. Albuquerque (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France and ACCELERATION & ADAPTATION, Aix-en-Provence, France); Prasad R. Vemala (Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA (School of Business), USA) |
| Abstract: | Mexican cities along the US-Mexico border, especially Cd. Juarez became notorious due to high femicide rates supposedly associated with maquiladora industries and the NAFTA. Nonetheless, statistical evaluation of data from 1990 to 2012 shows that their rates are consistent with other Mexican cities’ rates and tend to fall with increased employment opportunities in maquiladoras. Femicide rates in Cd. Juarez are in most years like rates in Cd. Chihuahua and Ensenada and, as a share of overall homicide rates, are lower than in most cities evaluated. These results challenge conventional wisdom and most of the literature on the subject. |
| Keywords: | maquiladoras, crime, gender violence, violence against women, homicide, femicide, border, Mexico, Juarez |
| JEL: | K42 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2316&r=law |
| By: | Raul Barroso (IESEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Économie Management, F-59000 Lille, France); Tinghua Duan (IESEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Économie Management, F-59000 Lille, France); Siyue Guo (IESEG School of Management, France); Oskar Kowalewski (IESEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Économie, F-59000 Lille, France) |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of international gender diversity reforms in the board of directors on carbon emissions. Employing a difference-in-differences-in-differences analysis, we analyze the relationship between the increase in female representation on boards following these reforms and changes in firms' carbon emissions. Our results reveal a significant decline in carbon emissions with an increase in the proportion of female board members. The reduction in carbon emissions is observed to be more pronounced when gender reform is legally enforced. Additionally, our findings indicate that a combination of climate regulations and higher female representation on boards leads to a decline in both, direct and indirect carbon emissions. These findings underscore the importance of legal enforcement in promoting board gender diversity, which, in turn, plays a critical role in addressing climate change. |
| Keywords: | : gender diversity reforms, climate change, law, enforcement |
| JEL: | G34 J16 Q54 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ies:wpaper:f202302&r=law |
| By: | Gilles Grolleau (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier); Murat Mungan (George Mason University [Fairfax]); Naoufel Mzoughi (ECODEVELOPPEMENT - Unité de recherche d'Écodéveloppement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | Punishment menus allow offenders to choose the punishment to which they will be subjected from a set of options. We present several behaviorally informed rationales for why punishment menus may serve as effective deterrents, notably by causing people to refrain from entering a calculative mindset; reducing their psychological reactance; causing them to reconsider the reputational impacts of punishment; and reducing suspicions about whether the act is enforced for rent-seeking purposes. We argue that punishment menus can outperform the traditional single punishment if these effects can be harnessed properly. Our observations thus constitute a challenge, based on behavioral arguments, to the conventional view that adding (possibly unexercised) punishment options to an existing punishment scheme is unlikely to increase deterrence or welfare. We explain how heterogeneities among individuals can pose problems to designing effective punishment menus and discuss potential solutions. After explaining how punishment menus, if designed and implemented benevolently, can serve socially desirable goals, we caution against their possible misuse by self-interested governments. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics, economics of crime, punishment menu |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03694337&r=law |
| By: | Omar García-Ponce; Isabel Laterzo |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of childhood exposure to organized criminal violence on sociopolitical attitudes in Mexico, where an entire generation of youths has been raised amid the country's most violent conflict over the past century. We fielded an in-person survey to nearly 3, 000 urban youths, measuring various sociopolitical attitudes such as trust in institutions, interpersonal trust, and vote choice. |
| Keywords: | Crime, Political reservations, Mexico, Violence, Trust, Democracy, Social cohesion |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2023-96&r=law |
| By: | Phillip McCalman |
| Abstract: | The global success of online search engines and social media is due to their free access and high level of quality. However, these features are supported by a business model that exploits personal user data to provide targeted advertising services to third parties. Does this business model deliver socially desirable outcomes at the global and/or national level? To explore these questions, we characterize how a global monopoly platform chooses the level of privacy protection and service quality. When a platform operates a free service model it over-exploits personal information and underprovides quality compared to a global planner. Despite distortions along two dimensions, global welfare can be improved by a policy of enhanced privacy protection alone. In fact, it is likely that enhanced privacy protection will also induce higher platform quality. Furthermore, when privacy policies are set at the national level, large countries tend to align with the global interest, thanks to a “Brussels effect” where a global monopoly platform will improve privacy protection across all its markets in response to a policy change in one country. The alignment of unilateral and multilateral incentives reduces the need for a trade agreement to cover privacy protection. However, countries do have a beggar-thy-neighbor motivation to apply ad tech taxes, making these policies an area where international cooperation is needed. |
| Keywords: | trade policy, trade agreements, WTO, platforms, two-sided markets |
| JEL: | F10 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10546&r=law |