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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Machin, Stephen (London School of Economics); Sandi, Matteo (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Research studying connections between crime and education is a prominent aspect of the big increase of publication and research interest in the economics of crime field. This work demonstrates a crime reducing impact of education, which can be interpreted as causal through leveraging research designs (e.g., based on education policy changes) that ensure the direction of causality flows from education to crime. A significant body of research also explores in detail, and in various directions, the means by which education has a crime reducing impact. This includes evidence on incapacitation versus productivity raising aspects of education, and on the quality of schooling at different stages of education, ranging from early age interventions, through primary and secondary schooling and policy changes that alter school dropout age. From this evidence base, there are education policies that have been effective crime prevention tools in many settings around the world. |
| Keywords: | education, crime |
| JEL: | K42 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17483 |
| By: | Tweneboah Senzu, Emmanuel |
| Abstract: | The paper examines social crimes that are common and significantly observed to emanates from the consequential outcome of family economic crisis, which necessitate spillover by reactionary effects of husband and wife, extended towards children, thus, create spiral crime effects at the unconscious level of the family Institution to the society, with it subsequent effects experience at the conscious level of the society. |
| Keywords: | Family economy, Social crime, Juvenile, Delinquent behaviour, Criminology |
| JEL: | K14 K36 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:123021 |
| By: | John J. Donohue; Matthew Benavides; Amy L. Zhang; Alex Oktay |
| Abstract: | The 2022 Supreme Court case NYSRPA v. Bruen struck down states’ discretion in issuing individuals firearm right-to-carry permits. As the country transitions towards more and more permissive concealed carry regulation, it has remained unclear how permitting processes and requirements affect personal and public safety. Leveraging a novel dataset of state laws spanning 2000- 2022, we find that more stringent concealed carry requirements, such as higher fees or more training hours, do not deter gun owners from obtaining carrying licenses, nor do they alter their behavior substantially enough to impact public safety outcomes including violent crimes, gun theft, or accidental shootings. As such, stricter training requirements are unable to counteract the effects of more permissive concealed carry issuance. |
| JEL: | H0 K0 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33240 |
| By: | Moamen Gouda; Anouk S. Rigterink |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the long-term relationship between slavery and violent crime in the USA. Although qualitative evidence suggests that slavery perpetuated violence, there has been no large-N study supporting this claim. Using county-level data, we find that the percentage of slaves in the population in 1860 is linked with violent crime in 2000. This result is specific to violent crime, robust to instrumenting for slavery and varying the approach to missing crime data, and not driven by biased crime reporting. Investigating the theoretical mechanisms driving these results, we find that historical slavery affects inequality (like Bertocchi and Dimico, 2014), white Americans’ political attitudes towards race (like Acharya et al., 2016b) and black American’s political attitudes – in opposite directions. Results suggest that inequality and black American’s political attitudes mediate the observed effect on violent crime in general, but that white American’s political attitudes mediate the effect on interracial violence. |
| Keywords: | slavery, crime, inequality, political attitude, violence, US South |
| JEL: | J15 J71 K42 N31 D70 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11515 |
| By: | Yörük, Baris (University at Albany, SUNY); Sabia, Joseph J. (San Diego State University); Dave, Dhaval M. (Bentley University) |
| Abstract: | Alcohol exclusion provisions, embedded in the Uniform Accident and Sickness Policy Provision Law (UPPL), allow health insurance providers to punish alcohol consumption by permitting them to deny claims for injuries stemming from alcohol impairment or the use of non-prescribed narcotics. Although the UPPLs were originally proposed to discourage excessive drinking and substance use, there is no clear evidence to either support or refute that these laws achieved their intended purpose. Furthermore, few studies document that these laws may have unintended consequences, as they create a disincentive for physicians to test the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of injured patients due to concerns about potential insurance reimbursement denials. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the UPPLs by investigating their impact on alcohol consumption at the intensive and extensive margin, drunk driving behavior, alcohol-related traffic fatalities, alcohol-related crime, and health insurance coverage rates and premiums. |
| Keywords: | alcohol exclusion provisions, Uniform Accident and Sickness Policy Provision Law, alcohol consumption, alcohol consumption related outcomes |
| JEL: | I10 I18 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17546 |
| By: | Joanne Haddad; Lamis Kattan |
| Abstract: | By the end of the nineteenth century, labor legislation for women had become a prominent issue in the United States, with most states enacting at least one female-specific work regulation. We examine the impact of three previously unexplored legislation: seating, health and safety, and night-work regulations. Given that not all states adopted these laws, and the staggered nature of adoption, we rely on a difference-in-differences strategy design to estimate the effects on female gainful employment. Our findings indicate that laws regulating health and safety conditions and restricting women’s night work increased the likelihood of female employment by about 4% to 8%, accounting for about 10% to 20% from the total increase during our period of analysis. Examining heterogeneous effects reveals that younger and married women without children witnessed the largest increase in the likelihood of employment. We also document that native, higher-class and literate women were also incentivized to join the workforce. Women’s labor supply in the decades under consideration has been estimated to be quite inelastic with respect to own wage. Nevertheless, we find sizable labor force participation responses to the female-specific labor regulation we study. This indicates that the legislation must have shifted women’s labor supply curves, either because it made jobs more pleasant, or because it improved perceptions about how respectable it is for a woman to work in the labor market. Both channels would reduce disutility from work, and increase labor supply at any given wage level. Our findings hold important implications for policymakers and advocates seeking to promote gender equality in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, labor law, gender law, gender norms |
| JEL: | J08 J16 J21 J24 J78 K31 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11546 |
| By: | Bocar A. Ba; Nayoung Rim; Roman Rivera |
| Abstract: | Given the use of an individual’s arrest history for many economic and social outcomes, reducing conviction‐less arrests (arrests that result in no charges or where the defendant is found not guilty) is an important policy goal. This paper examines which officers are making conviction‐less arrests, and whether these arrests can be reduced with increased oversight. Using the Chicago Police Department’s rotational duty calendar to obtain plausibly exogenous variation in the set of officers assigned to work on a particular day, we find that arrests made by officers with high misconduct are 10.5% less likely than the arrests made by no‐misconduct officers to result in charges and are 14% more likely to have a “Not Guilty” outcome. We also analyze two events that increased the transparency of police misconduct through public disclosure of complaint records and find that increased oversight reduces conviction‐less arrests, but with important nuances across misconduct profiles. While no‐ and low‐misconduct officers are responsive to oversight mechanisms, high‐misconduct officers are less responsive. |
| JEL: | D73 J18 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33276 |
| By: | Bagues, Manuel (University of Warwick); Villa, Carmen (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Over the past decades, many European countries have raised the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) from 16 to 18 years. This study provides novel evidence of the impact of this policy on educational outcomes by exploiting the staggered timing of MLDA changes across Spanish regions. Raising the MLDA decreased alcohol consumption among adolescents aged 14–17 by 8 to 18% and improved their exam performance by 4% of a standard deviation. This effect appears driven by alcohol's direct impact on cognitive ability, as we find no significant changes in potential mediators like use of other substances or time spent on leisure activities, including socialising, sports, gaming, or internet use. We also observe a decrease in tranquilliser and sleeping pill use, suggesting improved mental health. Our findings indicate that reducing teenage alcohol consumption represents a significant opportunity to improve educational outcomes in Europe, where youth drinking rates remain notably high. |
| Keywords: | alcohol, adolescence, minimum legal drinking age, PISA |
| JEL: | I18 I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17507 |
| By: | Nicolas Jacquemet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Céline Launay (CLLE - Cognition, langues, langage, ergonomie - EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - UT - Université de Toulouse - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - TMBI - Toulouse Mind & Brain Institut - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - UT - Université de Toulouse - UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse); Stéphane Luchini (AMU - Aix Marseille Université, EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales); Danica Mijovic-Prelec (MIT Sloan - Sloan School of Management - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Drazen Prelec (MIT Sloan - Sloan School of Management - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Jacques Py (CLLE - Cognition, langues, langage, ergonomie - EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - UT - Université de Toulouse - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - TMBI - Toulouse Mind & Brain Institut - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - UT - Université de Toulouse - UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse); Julie Rosaz (BSB - Burgundy School of Business (BSB) - Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Dijon Bourgogne (ESC)); Jason F. Shogren (UW - University of Wyoming) |
| Abstract: | Eyewitness testimony is the most powerful form of evidence in a court of law. Eyewitnesses affect both the odds of conviction and the severity of sentences of the guilty. But eyewitnesses also lie, and false testimony is the primarily cause of wrongful convictions. Most of the extant literature focuses on eyewitness reliability and credibility assessment, but very little is known about the efficiency of the main mechanism used in-field to foster eyewitness honesty: a solemn truth-telling oath-the most ancient and worldwide institution used in the solemn legal ceremony underpinning criminal cases. Herein we examine how the truth-telling oath actually affects the level of eyewitness deception. Using a controlled experimental test designed to address this question, we show that an eyewitness who is exogenously incentivized to lie and takes a solemn oath is significantly less likely to use deception. In contrast with the related literature focusing on the detection of lies, we show that an oath actually works to improve truth-telling. The oath is not just ceremonial, it plays a key role in improving efficiency within the court. |
| Keywords: | Eye-witness testimony, Truth-telling oath, Controlled experiment |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-04855141 |
| By: | Damiani Genaro Martín |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new theoretical insights into the causes and consequences of indirect tax evasion. I propose a decision-making framework that contemplates biased perceptions of apprehension probabilities, which are affected by the environment where the agents operate. This microfounded formulation allows for the analysis of how taxation affects tax evasion (and vice versa) in the aggregate, emphasizing the existing relationships between the relative size of the shadow economy, tax rates, and government revenue. It is shown that a traditional Laffer curve (inversely U-shaped and with a unique maximum) can only exist under certain conditions. The maximum government revenue attainable turns out to be, in any case, lower than in the absence of tax evasion. Nevertheless, evasion control policies are proven to be always effective in increasing government revenue. |
| JEL: | H26 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4724 |
| By: | Pyrooz, David (University of Colorado Boulder); Densley, James; Sanchez, Jose |
| Abstract: | Criminologists maintain a vested interest in hard-to-reach populations, such as active offenders, former prisoners, and affiliates of criminal enterprises. For five decades, policymakers and researchers have sought national estimates of gang activity. Traditional methods, such as surveys sampling law enforcement agencies or youth populations, have provided valuable insights into gang activity in the United States. However, these approaches face limitations, including bias, obsolescence, high costs, outdated data, and restricted scope. This study examines the potential of online opt-in panels to studying gang populations. Contracting with YouGov, we administered four surveys to 13, 148 respondents between January 2023 and January 2024, measuring lifetime gang membership and its correlates. Lifetime gang membership estimates ranged from 2.0% to 2.4% in custom surveys and 5.3% to 6.2% in omnibus surveys. While demographic and socioeconomic correlates showed mixed results, ecological and legal correlates consistently aligned with expectations based on prior research. Our findings suggest cautious optimism about the utility of online opt-in panels for studying hard-to-reach populations like gang members and advancing cross-national, comparative research in line with the Eurogang Program of Research. These panels offer advantages such as cost-efficiency, accessibility, and timeliness, but further validation is necessary to establish their reliability and validity for population-level estimates. |
| Date: | 2024–11–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ser2g |
| By: | Bostan, Ionel |
| Abstract: | The legal analysis of tax regulations is a complex and continuous process, considering that Tax Law does not operate in isolation. It intersects with other branches of public and private law, as well as fields such as macroeconomics, public policies, or state finances. In this regard, the work Tax Law (Marilena Ene, Bucharest: Solomon Publishing, 2024, ISBN: 978-606-9628-59-1, 488 pages) represents a remarkable contribution to the understanding of this field. |
| Keywords: | General Theory of Tax Law; Direct/Indirect Taxes; Tax Procedure; Tax Litigation |
| JEL: | H2 K2 |
| Date: | 2024–12–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:122887 |
| By: | Marco Castillo; Sera Linardi; Ragan Petrie |
| Abstract: | Many previously incarcerated individuals are rearrested following release from prison. We investigate whether encouragement to use reentry support services reduces rearrest. Field experiment participants are offered a monetary incentive to complete different dosages of visits, either three or five, to a support service provider. The incentive groups increased visits, and one extra visit reduces rearrests three years after study enrollment by six percentage points. The results are driven by Black participants who are more likely to take up treatment and benefit the most from visits. The study speaks to the importance of considering first-stage heterogeneity and heterogeneous treatment effects. |
| Keywords: | recidivism, reentry support services, dosage effects, field experiment |
| JEL: | K42 C93 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11554 |
| By: | Bruno Deffains (Université Paris Panthéon Sorbonne; CRED); Frédéric Marty (Université Côte d'Azur, France; GREDEG CNRS) |
| Abstract: | The implementation of generative artificial intelligence in legal services offers undeniable efficiency gains, but also raises fundamental issues for law firms. These challenges can be categorised along a broad continuum, ranging from changes in business lines to changes in the competitive environment and the internal organisation of law firms. This paper considers the risks that law firms face in terms of both the quality of the services they provide and perceived competition, both horizontally and vertically, considering possible relationships of dependency on suppliers of large language models and cloud infrastructures. |
| Keywords: | generative artificial intelligence, legal services, accountability, competition, vertical relationships |
| JEL: | L42 L86 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2025-01 |
| By: | Langfield, Cameron Thomas (University of Wollongong) |
| Abstract: | Developmental and life-course criminologists have long been interested in the criminal careers of individuals, and particularly why an individual starts their offending, why they continue, and why they stop. Two of these criminal career parameters—known as onset and persistence—have perhaps been the most researched in the discipline. However, no scholarly work to date has explored to what extent these two parameters were impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we use unit-record data for individuals born in 2004 in New South Wales drawn from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) Reoffending Database (ROD) to explore how the rate of onset and persistence were impacted during the first two years of the pandemic. Our analysis shows that the cumulative rate of onset declined by 17 percent compared to a cohort born two years prior. We find that these declines are clustered mainly in property offending, such as stealing, with some smaller declines in onset witnessed for violent offending. However, we find very few impacts on the rate of persistent offending among this cohort—in fact, these offenders committed 10 percent more property offences during the COVID-19 period than their older counterparts. We think that the disruption to routine activities and guardianship are most likely responsible for the decline in new onset, but we do not think these same mechanisms are responsible for the limited changes among high frequency offenders. The implications of these results for the field are discussed and future research areas are identified. |
| Date: | 2024–12–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:bn5zd |
| By: | Marc Bourreau; Axel Gautier |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we consider two platforms that compete for the development of a new product to integrate into their ecosystems. The new product can be developed either inhouse by the platforms or by an independent startup active only in the technology market. The presence of the startup affects the platforms’ R&D efforts through an insurance effect, which reduces the cost of failure in innovation, and a competition effect, which diminishes the returns to innovation. The magnitude of these effects depends on the attitude of the competition authorities towards the acquisition of the startup by one of the platforms. We show that allowing acquisitions stimulates platform innovation, but at the cost of a more concentrated market structure. We also compare the funding of the startup by independent venture capitalists or by the platforms themselves, and investigate how the merger regime influences the direction of the startup’s innovation. |
| Keywords: | innovation, startup acquisitions, mergers, digital, big tech, competition policy |
| JEL: | D43 G34 K21 L40 L86 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11569 |