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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Danilo Souza; Mateus Maciel |
| Abstract: | In the context of increasing violence, public security reforms are commonly advocated as a solution to the problem despite the lack of empirical evidence. We address this question by evaluating the effect of the Pacto pela Vida program, a comprehensive reform on the public security of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. We document a reduction of 16 homicides per 100, 000 inhabitants following the program implementation. We show that a reduction in crimes occurring on the streets and associated with young males and firearm availability are likely to have contributed to the program’s effect. |
| Keywords: | crime; reform; policy evaluation; Brazil |
| JEL: | H76 K42 R58 |
| Date: | 2024–06–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2024wpecon19&r= |
| By: | Arsenii Shcherbov |
| Abstract: | Recent years have spurred significant migration movements, underscoring the need to understand their impacts. This study explores a widely-debated correlation between crime and migration. Specifically, I investigate the 2014 migration wave, studying the response of Russian crime rates to the influx of immigrants from Ukraine. I approximate local crime rates using court data on sentencing decisions and describe relevant migration flows with internet search activity. The application of the difference-in-differences method reveals positive effects for property crime sentencing and the heterogeneous response of violent crime sentencing. The findings of this study are policyrelevant and could prove beneficial in understanding and mitigating the effects of future migration waves. |
| Keywords: | Crime, Migration |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp782&r= |
| By: | Bernhard Ganglmair; Christian Helmers; Brian J. Love |
| Abstract: | Because judges exercise discretion in how they handle and decide cases, heterogeneity across judges can affect case outcomes and, thus, preferences among litigants for particular judges. However, selection obscures the causal mechanisms that drive these preferences. We overcome this challenge by studying the introduction of random case assignment in a venue (the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas) that previously experienced a high degree of case concentration before one judge (Alan Albright), whom litigants could select with virtual certainty. To assess Albright’s importance to patent enforcers, we examine how case filing patterns changed following the adoption of random case allocation and show that case filings in the Western District of Texas decreased significantly at both the intensive and extensive margins. Moreover, to shed light on why litigants prefer Judge Albright, we compare motions practice and case management metrics across randomly assigned cases and show that cases assigned to Albright were both scheduled to proceed to trial relatively quickly and less likely to raise the issue of patentable subject matter. |
| Keywords: | Judicial assignments, judge shopping, forum shopping, litigation, patents, U.S. |
| JEL: | K4 O3 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_561&r= |
| By: | Drake, Coleman (University of Pittsburgh); Nagy, Dylan (University of Pittsburgh); Slusky, David (University of Kansas); Eisenberg, Matthew (Carnegie Mellon University) |
| Abstract: | Evidence on cannabis legalization's effects on mental health remains scarce, despite both rapid increases in cannabis use and an ongoing mental health crisis in the United States. We use granular geographic data to estimate medical cannabis dispensary availability's effects on self-reported mental health in New York state from 2011 through 2021 using a two-stage difference-in-differences approach to minimize bias introduced from the staggered opening of dispensaries. Our findings rule out that medical cannabis availability had negative effects on mental health for the adult population overall. We also find that medical cannabis availability reduced past-month self-reported poor mental health days by nearly 10%—3.37 percentage points—among adults 65 and above. These results suggest medical cannabis access has positive health impacts for older populations, likely through pain relief. |
| Keywords: | cannabis, mental health |
| JEL: | H75 I12 I18 I31 K32 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17022&r= |
| By: | Sharma, Smriti (Newcastle University); Sunder, Naveen (Bentley University) |
| Abstract: | It has been demonstrated that violent crime has profound effects on a number of socioeconomic outcomes. But, does day-to-day crime also shape human capital accumulation? We answer this question in the Indian context by combining multiple years of district-level data on the incidence of various types of crime with a nationally representative survey on learning achievement of school-aged children. Our empirical strategy leverages the within-district across-year variation in crime to estimate the crime-learning gradient. We show that an increase in violent crime is associated with lower achievement in reading and math, while non-violent crimes have no discernible correlation with learning outcomes. The effects are short-lived, driven by contemporaneous crime, and are similar for boys and girls. Additionally, we find that violent crimes impose greater costs on learning of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. We find evidence that both household-level factors (reduced child mobility and poorer mental health) and school-level factors (lower availability of teachers) are possible mechanisms underpinning these findings. |
| Keywords: | crime, education, learning, India |
| JEL: | I25 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17037&r= |
| By: | Leila Pereira; Rafael Pucci |
| Abstract: | We investigate how a private market deregulation affected the incentives for monitoring gold transactions in Brazil, ultimately leading to an increase in illegal gold mining and violence. Employing a Difference-in-Differences design and a unique database that combines the geological occurrence of gold deposits and protected areas, where mining is forbidden, we first show that the deregulation encouraged illegal gold mining. We use high-resolution data on deforestation as a proxy for illegal mining activity. Then, we demonstrate that municipalities more exposed to illegal gold mining experienced almost eleven additional homicides per 100, 000 people - roughly 30% more - after the deregulation. |
| Keywords: | Monitoring; Violence; Illegal mining; Deforestation; Amazon |
| JEL: | Q34 K42 D74 O13 O17 L72 |
| Date: | 2024–06–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2024wpecon18&r= |
| By: | Kaz Miyagiwa (Department of Economics, Florida International University); Yunyun Wan (Department of Humanities and Regional Studies, Akita University, Akita, Japan) |
| Abstract: | A search-theoretic model of illegal immigration is presented to examine the effect of deportation and other policy measures on unemployment, crimes and immigration flows. It is found that deporting immigrants who commit crimes lowers the unemployment rate and causes an increase in native labor force. However, if hiring immigrants is more profitable than hiring natives, deportation increases the immigrant population and the number of crimes they commit. Anti-crime policy and higher minimum wages generate similar effects. |
| Keywords: | illegal immigration, deportation, unemployment, crimes, minimum wages |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fiu:wpaper:2408&r= |
| By: | Massimo Motta; Volker Nocke; Martin Peitz |
| Abstract: | With the increased risks of international trade frictions and geopolitical disruptions merger control that does not account for such risks may be too lenient. This article provides a proposal on how competition authorities should systematically assess mergers based on a risk assessment and how they should adjust their market share and UPP analysis. The authors also argue that the approach fits well into recent developments of merger analyses in the European Union. |
| Keywords: | merger control, market shares, UPP, resilience, geopolitical risks |
| JEL: | K21 L40 L13 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_568&r= |
| By: | Campbell, Douglas; Brodeur, Abel; Johannesson, Magnus; Kopecky, Joseph; Lusher, Lester; Tsoy, Nikita |
| Abstract: | Naidu and Yuchtman (2013) find that labor demand shocks in 19th-century Britain had an impact on master and servant prosecutions, as breaking an employee contract was a criminal offense until 1875. We first reproduce all regression tables in Naidu and Yuchtman (2013) and then test for robustness by using a triple difference where we compare the impact of labor demand shocks on master and servant prosecutions relative to other prosecutions, changing the functional form of key variables, including region*year interactive fixed effects, and conducting influential analysis. We find that the results are sensitive to the triple difference specification and to region*year FEs, and otherwise robust. Overall, we find the results are robust in 50% of the checks we ran, and the t/z scores were on average 74% as large as the original study. |
| Keywords: | Labor Law, Contract Law, Labor Contracts, Labor Market Institutions, Economic History |
| JEL: | J31 J41 K12 K31 N33 N43 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:130&r= |
| By: | Kene Boun My; Julien Jacob; Mathieu Lefebvre |
| Abstract: | We propose a new theoretical framework to analyze the incentives provided by different allocations of liability in the case of (semi)autonomous devices which are a source of risk of accident. We consider three key agents, an AI provider (scientist), a producer and a consumer, and look at the effect of different rules of sharing liability on the decision making of each type of agent. In addition we test the theoretical predictions in an original lab experiment. We show that liability on the scientist and the producer is efficient in reducing their misbehaviors. We also find that liability on the consumer increases her incentives to control the risk of an accident (in case of a semi-autonomous device). However, the absence of consumer’s control (full autonomous device) and liability decreases the consumer’s propensity to buy the good. We complete our study by making a social welfare analysis. It highlights the importance of letting the producer liable in order to provide the consumer with confidence in the technology, especially in the case of a full autonomy of the good. |
| Keywords: | AI, Liability Sharing Rules, asymmetric information, lab experiment. |
| JEL: | C91 D82 K13 K32 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-24&r= |
| By: | Lee, Jonathan; Nguyen, Duc Duy; Nguyen, Huyen |
| Abstract: | Using the adoption of Zombie Property Law (ZL) across several US states, we show that increased lender accountability in the foreclosure process affects mortgage lending decisions and standards. Difference-in-differences estimations using a state border design show that ZL incentivizes lenders to screen mortgage applications more carefully: they deny more applications and impose higher interest rates on originated loans, especially risky loans. In turn, these loans exhibit higher ex-post performance. ZL also affects lender behavior after borrowers become distressed, causing them to strategically keep delinquent mortgages alive. Our findings inform the debate on policy responses to foreclosure crises. |
| Keywords: | Zombie lending, mortgage screening, mortgage renegotiation |
| JEL: | G21 G28 K25 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:298000&r= |
| By: | Ruveyda Nur Gozen |
| Abstract: | How do stronger property rights for disadvantaged groups affect innovation? I investigate the impact of strengthened property rights for women on U.S. innovation by analyzing the Married Women's Property Acts, which granted equal property rights to women starting in 1845 in New York State. I examine the universe of granted patents from 1790 until 1901, exploiting the staggered adoption of the laws over time across states. The strengthening of women's property rights led to a 40% increase in patenting activity among women in the long run, with effects peaking about a decade after the laws were introduced. Importantly, women's innovations were not of lower quality (as measured by a novelty index based on patent text analysis) and did not generate negative effects on male innovation. Finally, I show that the main mechanism was through higher human capital accumulation among women inventors and innovation incentives, rather than an increase in participation in STEM fields, labor force participation, or relieving financial frictions. |
| Keywords: | innovations, gender, property rights, economic development |
| Date: | 2024–06–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2005&r= |
| By: | Luca Anderlini (Department of Economics, Georgetown University); Joshua Teitlebaum (Georgetown Law Center, Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | Part of a ship’s cargo is jettisoned in order to save the vessel and the remaining cargo from imminent peril. How should the loss be shared among the cargo owners? The law of general average, an ancient principle of maritime law, prescribes that the owners share the loss proportionally according to the respective values of their cargo. We analyze whether the law of general average is a truthful and efficient mechanism. That is, we investigate whether it induces truthful reporting of cargo values and yields a Pareto efficient allocation in equilibrium. We show that the law of general average is neither truthful nor efficient if owners have expected utility preferences, but is both truthful and efficient if owners have maxmin utility preferences. We discuss why maxmin behavior may be reasonable in the general average context. |
| Keywords: | General average, loss sharing, maritime law, maxmin, mutual insurance, truthful equilibrium, Pareto efficiency. |
| JEL: | C72 D82 G22 K39 |
| Date: | 2024–03–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~24-24-03&r= |