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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick (Anglia Ruskin University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between social vulnerability, illegal activities, and location-based business disruptions in Athens, the capital of Greece. The research utilises repeated cross-sectional data from 2008, 2014, and 2023, gathered from areas with high levels of criminal activity, reflecting the experiences of business owners and managers in these locations. The findings reveal that heightened levels of social vulnerability—including the presence of illicit drug users and homeless individuals—alongside illegal activities such as gang-related protection rackets and black-market operations, are associated with increased location-based business disruptions. These disruptions manifest in assaults on employees and customers, business burglaries, reputational damage, supply chain problems, and decreased turnover. The study also examines the impact of economic conditions in 2014 and 2023, when Greece's Gross Domestic Product was lower than in 2008, indicating an economic recession. The findings suggest that the economic downturn during these years further exacerbated location-based business disruptions. Conversely, enhanced public safety measures, such as increased police presence, law enforcement, and improved public infrastructure, were associated with a reduction in these disruptions. Furthermore, an interesting insight was that businesses with longer operating histories tend to experience fewer location-based disruptions, indicating that operating history might be perceived as a resilience factor. The study suggests that policy actions should focus on increasing police visibility, providing financial support to high-risk businesses, funding urban regeneration projects, maintaining public infrastructure, and delivering social services aimed at helping marginalised communities escape vulnerability. |
| Keywords: | social vulnerability, illegal activities, crime, criminality, business, entrepreneurship, business disruptions, economic recessions, public safety |
| JEL: | K4 K42 L26 I3 E32 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17321 |
| By: | Farrell, Graham (University of Leeds); Davies, Toby |
| Abstract: | Knife crime has become a prominent and seemingly intractable problem in England & Wales. Theory and evidence indicate that reducing crime opportunities is an effective means of crime control, including restrictions on lethal weapons. While public debate has centred on zombie and other ‘status’ knives, the most prevalent homicide weapon is a kitchen knife. Here we argue that replacing lethal pointed-tip kitchen knives with round-tip knives would reduce knife crime with little or no displacement, and may reduce other forms of violence. Drawing on the approach to remove fossil-fuel vehicles from roads, we propose a phased removal of lethal kitchen knives and estimate this will cut knife crime in half. |
| Date: | 2024–10–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:2d8ea |
| By: | Diogo G. C. Britto; Gianmarco Daniele; Marco Le Moglie; Paolo Pinotti; Breno Sampaio |
| Abstract: | We study the prevalence and effects of individuals with past criminal charges among candidates and elected politicians in Brazil. Individuals with past criminal charges are twice as likely to both run for office and be elected compared to other individuals. This pattern persists across political parties and government levels, even when controlling for a broad set of observable characteristics. Randomized anti-corruption audits reduce the share of mayors with criminal records, but only when conducted in election years. Using a regression discontinuity design focusing on close elections, we demonstrate that the election of mayors with criminal backgrounds leads to higher rates of underweight births and infant mortality. Additionally, there is an increase in political patronage, particularly in the health sector, which is consistent with the negative impacts on local public health outcomes. |
| Keywords: | politicians, crime, audits, policies, patronage |
| JEL: | K42 J45 P16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp24230 |
| By: | Bulent Guler; Amanda M. Michaud |
| Abstract: | We argue that transitional dynamics play a critical role in evaluating the effects of punitive incarceration reform on crime, inequality, and labor markets. Individuals’ past choices regarding crime and employment under previous policies have persistent consequences that limit their responsiveness to policy changes. We provide novel cohort evidence supporting this mechanism. A quantitative model of this theory, calibrated using restricted administrative data, predicts nuanced dynamics of crime and incarceration that are distinct across property and violent crime and similar to the U.S. experience after 1980. Increased inequality and declining employment accompany these changes, with unequal impacts across generations. |
| Keywords: | Inequality trends; incarceration; Dynamic policy evaluation |
| JEL: | E24 E69 |
| Date: | 2024–10–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:98972 |
| By: | Bulent Guler; Amanda M. Michaud |
| Abstract: | This online appendix accompanies Institute Working Paper 101: Dynamics of Deterrence: A Macroeconomic Perspective on Punitive Justice Policy. |
| Keywords: | incarceration; Inequality trends; Dynamic policy evaluation |
| JEL: | E24 E69 |
| Date: | 2024–10–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:98973 |
| By: | Nuno Garoupa; Rok Spruk |
| Abstract: | The synthetic control method has emerged as a widely utilized empirical tool for estimating the causal effects of public policies, natural disasters, and other interventions on various economic, social, institutional, and political outcomes. In this study, we demonstrate the potential application of this method in empirical comparative law by estimating the impact of the 2010 constitutional referendum in Turkiye on the trajectory of judicial independence. By comparing Turkiye with a salient Mediterranean donor pool of countries that did not experience similar interventions during the period from 1987 to 2021, we provide evidence of a severe breakdown and erosion of judicial independence. This deterioration appears to be a direct response to the populist constitutional backsliding initiated by the government-orchestrated assault on the judiciary, which was carried out under the guise of judicial modernization in 2010, before the additional constitutional reforms in 2017. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.02439 |
| By: | Daria Denti (Gran Sasso Science Institute); Marco Modica (Gran Sasso Science Institute) |
| Abstract: | Justice quality influence on premeditated violent crimes is widely acknowledged, however little is known on its effect on Hit&Run (H&R) accidents, which are involuntary crimes in the first stage (the “Hit†) while becoming voluntary in the second stage (the “Run†). This paper provides a quantitative estimation of the effect of justice quality on H&R accidents in the U.S, where they generate high socioeconomic and emotional cost. We exploit a unique micro-regional database for U.S. counties for 2010-2018 and an instrumental variable model which draws on the Durkheimian role of individualism in shaping the evolution of institutions. We find that higher quality of justice, induced by historical and persistent individualism, has a substantial signaling effect capable of deterring H&R. Results are supported by several robustness checks, including testing alternative measures for justice quality to account for its composite dimensions. |
| Keywords: | Hit&Run, justice quality, institutions, individualism, American frontier |
| JEL: | D02 D64 D91 K14 N91 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahy:wpaper:wp37 |