|
on Law and Economics |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Competition rules governing information sharing must balance two primary risks: permissive rules may facilitate tacit collusion or explicit cartel conduct, while overly restrictive frameworks can chill legitimate collaboration and create market inefficiencies. This paper reviews how different forms of information exchange affect firm incentives and market outcomes, drawing on recent economic literature. It also examines how competition authorities across OECD jurisdictions have approached the issue in practice, including through enforcement, case law and guidance. The paper aims to clarify the main factors that shape competitive risk and how those factors are reflected in current assessment and enforcement. |
| Keywords: | antitrust, cartels, collusion, competition, information exchange, information sharing |
| JEL: | D21 D43 D8 K21 L13 L44 C7 |
| Date: | 2026–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dafaac:335-en |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | National security considerations are becoming increasingly prominent in economic policymaking, reflecting geopolitical developments, technological change and growing attention to economic security, resilience and technological capability. As these considerations extend beyond traditional defence-related domains, they are intersecting more frequently with competition enforcement across a widening range of sectors, such as energy, telecommunications and advanced technologies. This paper examines the implications for competition authorities. It develops an analytical framework to distinguish between concerns that can be assessed using established competition law tools, where they can be expressed as competition-relevant effects, and those that fall outside the analytical remit of competition authorities and require assessment by governments or specialised bodies. Drawing on cross-jurisdictional experience, the paper analyses how national security considerations arise in the assessment of competitive constraints, merger control, co-ordinated conduct, unilateral conduct and remedy design. It identifies key considerations for preserving analytical boundaries, institutional roles, legal predictability and effective enforcement in an evolving policy environment. |
| Keywords: | competition, competition policy, defence capabilities, enforcement, national security, self-reliance, sovereignty, strategic autonomy, supply chain resilience |
| JEL: | D4 D47 F5 F52 F6 H5 H56 K21 L1 L4 L5 L78 L98 F1 |
| Date: | 2026–06–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dafaac:336-en |
| By: | James Flynn (Department of Economics, Miami University); Michael F. Pesko (Department of Economics, University of Missouri); Christian Saenz (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | We consider the impact of state laws that prohibit conduct already barred under federal law. In particular, we examine the effectiveness of state minimum legal sales laws for tobacco, or tobacco 21 laws, implemented after the federal T21 law in December 2019. Using difference–in–differences modeling that exploits the staggered implementation of tobacco 21 legislation (T21) in 28 states after 2019, we find that these state T21 laws consistently have little to no effect on smoking and vaping among adults ages 18 to 20, nor for high school youth. Our findings indicate that state T21 laws offer little marginal benefit under a unified federal T21 regime. We discuss voluntary compliance as a likely explanation for these findings. |
| Keywords: | Tobacco control, minimum legal sales age, youth smoking and vaping, state vs federal regulation, policy redundancy |
| JEL: | I18 K32 H75 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:2601 |
| By: | Rafat Mahmood; Pushkar Maitra |
| Abstract: | Natural disasters are a growing global threat, yet their consequences for gender-based violence (GBV) in high-income countries with strong institutional protections remain largely unknown. We address this gap using administrative crime records linked to disaster declarations at the Local Government Area level in Australia. Applying staggered difference-in-differences estimation techniques, we find that disasters cause short-run increase family, domestic and sexual violence with effects concentrated in the first one to three months following a disaster. Strikingly, these effects are larger in urban and affluent areas, an outcome that is difficult to reconcile with a pure economic-stress mechanism, and is more consistent with institutional strain and differential reporting environments. To probe the underlying pathway, we draw on complementary household survey evidence, which points to mental health deterioration and increased intra-household conflict as individual-level mechanisms. Together, our findings suggest that even well-resourced institutional settings offer only incomplete protection against disaster-induced violence against women |
| Keywords: | Natural Disasters, gender based Violence, Event Study, Australia |
| JEL: | Q54 J12 J16 I18 K42 |
| Date: | 2026–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:paper_1777943539577_709 |
| By: | Spencer, Joe |
| Abstract: | This study assesses enforcing a cannabis coffeeshop tourist ban (the i-criterium) in Amsterdam’s projected 2026 economy. Using a Regulatory Impact Assessment approach, it highlights a notable shortfall in what the authors term “Fiscal Reciprocity”: non-resident tourists would face a combined tax burden of 33.5% (21% VAT plus 12.5% municipal tourist tax) while remaining excluded from the protections offered by a retail sector that is 98.4% Bibob-compliant. Econometric estimates, applying a substitution rate of σ = 0.3, predict an overall economic decline of €488 million and an associated €55 million displacement into unregulated street markets labeled here as “Criminal Capture.” The paper recommends adopting a “De‑Risking Strategy” — a 24‑month pause in new regulatory measures to reassess current fiscal disincentives before moving forward with prohibitionist enforcement. |
| Keywords: | i-criterium, Amsterdam, Cannabis Policy, Fiscal Reciprocity, Econometric Modeling, Criminological Forecasting, |
| JEL: | H2 K2 K42 L83 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–03–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:128840 |
| By: | Grubb, Farley |
| Abstract: | A prominent interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution uses original meaning, strict construction, and textualism. The Amendment’s words mean exactly what they say, which was the original intent of the founding fathers as they fit them into the strict construction of the Constitution as drafted in 1787. The current conclusion taken from this approach is that the Second Amendment prohibits gun control laws at all legislative levels. Understanding this approach involves grammatical and historical issues that require interdisciplinary analysis. I show that when historically, grammatically, and analytically deconstructed the conclusion is the opposite of that currently propounded. |
| Keywords: | gun control, militias, in-kind taxes, congressional restraints, judicial interpretations of constitutional law |
| JEL: | H11 H20 H4 K00 K19 K49 N41 |
| Date: | 2026–04–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:129050 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Given the limited resources available to competition authorities, decisions around case prioritisation and prosecutorial discretion play a fundamental role in shaping the effectiveness of competition policy. This paper, supported by original survey evidence, highlights how such decisions influence the actions that competition authorities take and reflect their strategy and overall priorities. Effective case prioritisation requires striking a balance between discretion, transparency and cost-benefit based decision making. Authorities should consider developing procedures and public guidance to provide clarity and transparency to these decisions, and develop healthy case pipelines to make the exercise meaningful. |
| Keywords: | case prioritisation, competition authority effectiveness, competition enforcement, competition policy, international cooperation, market studies, prosecutorial discretion |
| JEL: | K21 L4 L40 L41 L42 L49 |
| Date: | 2026–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dafaac:333-en |
| By: | Cristiana Vitale; Rosamaria Bitetti |
| Abstract: | Professional services play a central role in modern economies, both as providers of high-skilled services and as key inputs into a wide range of downstream activities. While regulation of these services is commonly justified by information asymmetries and negative externalities, concerns persist that regulatory frameworks may exceed what is necessary to protect consumers and limit negative spillovers, thereby restricting entry, limiting competition, and reducing productivity. This paper examines how six professions - lawyers, notaries, accountants, architects, civil engineers, and real estate agents - are regulated across fifty countries, drawing on the OECD Product Market Regulation (PMR) database and indicators. It documents substantial cross-country and cross-profession variation in entry and conduct rules, with licensing remaining the dominant regulatory model and restrictive entry requirements more prevalent than conduct restrictions. The analysis shows that many regulatory approaches appear poorly aligned with the actual risks posed by professional activities and that demand-side tools remain underdeveloped. The findings suggest scope for reform through the recalibration of entry requirements, reduction in conduct restrictions, and stronger consumer-facing mechanisms. Aligning regulation more closely with market failures could expand access to professional services, support geographic and social mobility, increase competition, and generate productivity gains across the wider economy. |
| Keywords: | competition, licencing, occupational regulation, PMR indicators, professional services, regulation |
| JEL: | K20 L40 L84 |
| Date: | 2026–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1865-en |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia (University of Warwick); Daysal, N. Meltem (University of Copenhagen); Fjællegaard Jensen, Mathias (University of Oxford); Jørgensen, Thomas H. (University of Copenhagen); Montpetit, Sébastien (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Using four decades of Danish administrative data, we estimate the intergenerational transmission of violent crime victimization. Sons are twice as likely, and daughters three times as likely, to be victimized if a parent was victimized, with stronger associations if the mother was the victim. Controlling for cohort, municipality, socio-economic factors, parental cohabitation, and parental offending explains about 60% of this correlation. The link is weaker in higher-income families; it persists for sons, but is driven to zero for daughters. Further, children of victimized parents experience lower absolute income mobility, comparable to the Black-White difference for men in the United States |
| Keywords: | victimization, violent crime, intergenerational transmission, income mobility JEL codes: K42, J12, J62 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1614 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Digital markets have profoundly transformed the way consumers interact with businesses, offering new opportunities for innovative goods and services, greater choice, and enhanced convenience. These evolving dynamics create new challenges for both competition and consumer protection authorities, as practices that impact competition may also have an effect on consumer autonomy and choice, privacy, as well as trust, and vice versa. Traditional analytical frameworks based on price, output, information and transparency often fail to capture the full competition and consumer implications of conduct in digital environments. This note examines areas where the two policy areas converge, where gaps remain and how authorities can work together to address challenges arising from digitalisation. |
| JEL: | D12 D18 K21 L13 L40 L41 |
| Date: | 2026–05–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dafaac:332-en |