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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Ariell Reshef; Cailin Slattery |
| Abstract: | The employment share of legal services in the U.S. more than doubled during 1970–1990, in stark contrast to stability during 1850–1970 and after 1990. The relative wage of lawyers and law firm partners also doubled between 1970 and 1990. We argue that this demand shift was driven by important legislative and regulatory events, starting in the mid-1960s and lasting throughout the 1980s. These changes increased the scope of the law and uncertainty over legal outcomes. Consistent with this, we find that employment and compensation of lawyers are tightly correlated with federal regulation, fee-shifting statues and civil litigation, over a period of 100 years. These findings are supported by state-level and individual-level analysis. Other factors, e.g., changes in lawyers’ quality, industrial composition and technology are not important determinants of the demand shift. We calculate that 40% of payments to legal services in 1990 are in excess of what they would have been had their relative income remained at 1970 levels. This represents an excess cost of 75 billion dollars in 2024 alone. |
| Keywords: | legal services, lawyers, legislation, deregulation, litigation, labor demand |
| JEL: | J20 J30 N30 K00 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11661 |
| By: | Grégroire Massé (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | The French notary profession has been transformed over the last ten years, leading to increased competition. However, regulatory indicators that initiated this process did not change. In other words, indicators have promoted and directly inspired regulatory changes that they fail to quantify. This paper questions the reasons for this failure by revisiting the methodology behind the indicators of professional regulation. It interrogates their double aim of quantifying regulation and giving insights for policymaking. Both lie in a representation of regulation on a competition continuum. Thus, the indicators can be interpreted equally as indicators of both regulation and deregulation. Challenging their positive dimension (regulation), we show that, in fact, they do not quantify professional regulation itself, but rather measure the distance from an ideal model in a "flat" world. Analysing their normative dimension (deregulation), we show that they often contradict the policies they are used to justify. These indicators can only promote complete deregulation or a one-size-fits-all model. Finally, we advocate for developing indicators more suitable for both economic analysis and policymaking, by adopting a more "legal markets-based" methodology for constructing indicators |
| Keywords: | Regulation Indexes (Regulatory Indicators); Legal Services (notaries); Professional competition; Comparative Law and Economics; Optimal regulation |
| JEL: | J44 L51 D45 K23 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24004r |
| 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_v1 |
| By: | Cai, Liang; Song, Guangwen; Zhang, Yanji |
| Abstract: | Objectives Although the social disorganization tradition emphasizes the role of neighborhood context in shaping delinquent behaviors and neighborhood crime, researchers have rarely considered the influence of neighborhood context on criminals’ decision of where to offend. This study explicitly examines how concentrated disadvantage in both the origin and destination neighborhoods structures burglars’ preference for street physical disorder and spatial familiarity. Methods We measure observed and perceived physical disorder from 107, 858 street view images using computer vision algorithms. Geo-referenced mobile phone flows between 1, 642 census units are used to approximate offenders’ potential spatial knowledge about target neighborhoods. Discrete choice models are estimated separately for burglars from disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged neighborhoods (N=1, 972). Results While burglars residing in non-disadvantaged neighborhoods are not sensitive to physical disorder in non-disadvantaged target neighborhoods, they strongly avoid disadvantaged neighborhoods with disorder. Conversely, residents of neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage swiftly act upon street disorder in better-off neighborhoods but not in disadvantaged neighborhoods. These tendencies to react to the presence of physical disorder on the street are also contingent on burglars’ potential familiarity with the target environment. Conclusions We highlight the importance of larger neighborhood structural characteristics and their interactions with spatial knowledge and environmental conditions such as visual signs of disorder, in criminal decision making. Physical disorder is not uniformly indicative of decay across neighborhoods and offenders. This divergent decision-making may also partially explain spatial heterogeneity of crime. Moreover, spatial knowledge is most effective in triggering or deterring actions in places that are categorically different from offenders’ residential spaces. |
| Date: | 2024–12–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rcny3_v1 |
| By: | Clara Calini (Italian Competition Authority - AGCM); Alessandra Catenazzo (Italian Competition Authority - AGCM); Elisabetta Iossa (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and AGCM) |
| Abstract: | Well-functioning competitive procurement is essential to reach efficiency of public services and public spending. Drawing from the experience of the Autorit`a Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, this paper argues that fostering competition in public procurement is most effective when employing a diverse range of tools. First, identifying the functioning of compensatory mechanisms that result in anomalous bidding behaviour, as well as diversifying the sources of information, is important for effectively prosecuting bid rigging ex post and helping contracting authorities detect anticompetitive conduct. Second, ex ante advocacy contributes to enhance the competence of public buyers, helping them design pro-competitive procurement processes. Third, adopting legality rating systems incentivizes compliance with competition law and also helps select the most efficient bidder. The paper makes these points whilst reviewing enforcement practice. |
| Keywords: | Antitrust, Advocacy, Bid rigging, Legality Rating, Public Procurement |
| JEL: | D44 D73 H57 K4 L4 |
| Date: | 2025–02–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:594 |
| By: | Tzanaki, Anna |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cbscwp:311856 |
| By: | Pina-Sánchez, Jose (University of Leeds); Hamilton, Melissa; Tennant, Peter WG |
| Abstract: | To minimise confounding bias and facilitate the identification of unwarranted disparities, sentencing researchers have traditionally sought to control for as many legal factors as possible. In this article we challenge such approach. Using causal graphs we show how controlling for commonly used variables in the sentencing literature can introduce bias. Instead, we propose a new modelling framework that clarifies which types of controls are necessary to identify different definitions of sentencing disparities. We apply this framework to the estimation of race disparities in the US federal courts and gender disparities in the England and Wales magistrates’ court. We find that the model uncertainty associated to the choice of controls is substantial for gender disparities and for race disparities affecting Hispanic offenders, rendering estimates of the latter inconclusive. Disparities against black offenders are more consistent, although, they are not strong enough to be seen as definitive evidence of racial discrimination. |
| Date: | 2024–11–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ymzsv_v1 |
| By: | Higgs, James; Flowerday, Stephen |
| Abstract: | The video game market is forecasted to be valued at $321.6 billion by 2027. Today, younger generations increasingly prefer spending their leisurely time playing online video games. Beyond providing a leisurely – and often competitive – activity to the bulk of its user base, online video games provide cybercriminals with an environment that is free from the reigns of legal enforcement. More specifically, with the growing popularity and uptake of the microtransaction business model, money launderers are provided with novel channels to move their illicitly gained funds. A continuously expanding body of evidence underscores that money laundering is occurring through online video games. Foremost, cybercriminals are attracted to the anonymity and global reach offered by online video games with few to no controls currently in place to disrupt laundering processes. Furthermore, regulations are struggling to keep pace with the latest money laundering strategies employed by cybercriminals. This paper explores and discusses money laundering in the context of online video games. Core vulnerabilities enabling money laundering to occur through online video games are identified. Security controls to reduce the scale of laundering are proposed. |
| Date: | 2024–11–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:fyv6c_v1 |
| By: | Barreto Cifuentes, Carlos Sebastian; Beshkardana, Katayoon; Majed M. El-Bayya; Rotunno, Lorenzo |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how procurement rules affect international trade, leveraging a novel dataset that characterizes national laws across 141 countries. Text analysis of national laws on government procurement identifies prevalent protectionist measures such as preferential treatment for domestic bidders and mandatory domestic sourcing. A descriptive analysis reveals that 124 countries incorporate preferential treatment provisions, highlighting the widespread nature of protectionism. The prevalence of procurement policies characterized as protectionist negatively correlates with trade openness across countries, in both public and private markets. This protectionist effect is confirmed in gravity regressions. Countries with more protectionist procurement laws are found to trade more domestically than from abroad in procurement markets. Industry-level estimates suggest that these effects are stronger for goods than for services. |
| Date: | 2024–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10937 |