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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Britto, Diogo; Hsu Rocha, Roberto; Pinotti, Paolo; Sampaio, Breno |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of having a child on parents' criminal behavior using rich administrative data from Brazil. Fathers' criminal activity increases sharply by up to 10\% during the pregnancy period, and by up to 30\% two years after birth, while mothers experience only a transitory decline in criminal activity around childbirth. The effect on fathers lasts for at least six years and can explain at least 5\% of the overall male crime rate. Domestic violence within the family also increases after childbirth. The generalized increase in fathers' crime stands in sharp contrast with previous evidence from developed countries, where childbirth is associated with significant and enduring declines in criminal behavior by both parents. Our findings can be explained by the costs of parenthood and the prevalence of poverty among newly formed Brazilian families. Consistent with this explanation, we provide novel evidence that access to maternity benefits largely offsets the increase in crime by fathers after childbirth. |
| Keywords: | Crime; Parenthood |
| JEL: | D10 J13 K42 H5 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19649 |
| By: | Hjalmarsson, Randi; Machin, Stephen; Pinotti, Paolo |
| Abstract: | The economics of crime has emerged as a critical field over the past 30 years, with economists increasingly exploring the causes and consequences of criminal behavior. This chapter surveys key contributions and developments from labor economists, who investigate the (often two-way) intersection of crime with labor market factors, such as education, wages, and unemployment. The chapter underscores the importance of understanding criminal decision-making in economic analysis through the lens of opportunity costs and labor market conditions. Methodological advancements, particularly those addressing causation, have propelled the field forward, enabling more accurate conclusions to be drawn for policy recommendations. The chapter also explores the role of social policies and international contexts, emphasizing the need for evidence-based reforms to effectively reduce crime. This comprehensive review underscores the transformative impact of economics on crime research and its potential to influence real-world policies. |
| JEL: | K42 J01 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19651 |
| By: | Machin, Stephen; Sandi, Matteo |
| 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: | Crime; Education |
| JEL: | K42 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19877 |
| By: | Emons, Winand; Parisi, Francesco |
| Abstract: | Third-party litigation financing involves an external party funding a legal claim, taking on the risk of loss in exchange for a share of any potential recovery. As European regulators prepare to establish a common regulatory framework for third-party litigation financing, this article draws on existing law and economics literature to examine the unique characteristics of third-party litigation financing, vis-a-vis other forms of financial support of litigation. Our findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different litigation-financing mechanisms in promoting socially desirable levels of litigation, adding a political economy perspective to the ongoing debates on the issue. |
| JEL: | K13 K40 K41 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19589 |
| By: | Britto, Diogo; Daniele, Gianmarco; Pinotti, Paolo; Le Moglie, Marco; Sampaio, Breno |
| 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. |
| JEL: | K42 J45 P16 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19650 |
| By: | Maria Carreri; Davide Cipullo; Marco Le Moglie; Alberto Perego |
| Abstract: | Local governments promise democratic responsiveness but are also vulnerable to political capture by illicit actors. While existing research documents the political and economic consequences of capture, less is known about how bureaucrats respond when political leadership is captured — whether they become instruments of corrupt rule or resist it. We examine these competing expectations in the context of Italian municipalities infiltrated by mafia organizations. Leveraging a law that allows the central government to dissolve captured municipal councils, we study how bureaucratic performance responds when political capture is abruptly removed. Using a difference-in-differences design with matched controls based on a machine-learning index of mafia-infiltration risk, we show that dissolutions substantially improve bureaucratic performance. Evidence from administrative data and investigative reports supports the interpretation that the lower performance during mafia rule was driven by bureaucrats resisting political capture. Our findings show that bureaucracies mitigate, rather than amplify, the downstream consequences of political capture. |
| Keywords: | political capture, bureaucratic performance, organized crime, state capacity |
| JEL: | D73 H70 K42 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12861 |
| By: | Bao, Jiaren; Da, Yabin |
| Abstract: | Air pollution imposes large and multi-dimensional social costs, yet its effect on criminal behavior—and the channel through which it operates—remains unsettled, in part because credible identification is difficult; existing instruments tie wind variation to a fixed pollution source or rely on satellite plume presence without modeling transport. We estimate the causal effect of fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) on crime across all 58 California counties from 2006 to 2020, instrumenting monitor-based PM2.5 with a novel downwind smoke-exposure measure that transports each NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke plume along the observed wind field over its own footprint—an instrument whose pollution source location varies from day to day as fires ignite and extinguish. The instrument is strong, with each additional downwind day raising monthly mean PM2.5 by about 0.26 μg/m3 (first-stage Wald F ≈ 45). A 1 μg/m3 increase in monthly mean PM2.5 raises violent crime by roughly 1.3% and motor-vehicle theft by roughly 1.4%, with the violent-crime effect concentrated in homicide and aggravated assault and no detectable effect on robbery, larceny, burglary, or total property crime. The pattern is robust to the pollution measure (wildfire-attributable PM2.5), the outcome scale (rates per 100, 000), and the instrument geometry. A countylevel heterogeneity analysis finds the violent-crime effect homogeneous across demographic and economic characteristics—consistent with an acute physiological channel rather than a socioeconomic one—while the most severe harms fall disproportionately on more urban, younger, and more-minority counties. These findings identify a previously unvalued externality of wildfire smoke—an increasingly climate-driven pollution shock—and strengthen the case for smoke mitigation. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404441 |
| By: | Pandey, Aarni; Ganjoo, Ananta |
| Abstract: | The rapid proliferation of digital platforms has fundamentally disrupted the competitive landscape, exposing the structural inadequacies of traditional antitrust reforms that were designed for industrial-era markets. This paper examines the evolving intersection of antitrust law, technological advancement and innovation policy in the context of modern digital economies. Drawing on a comprehensive review of regulatory developments across major jurisdictions, including the United States, the European Union, China and India, the study analyses how legacy antitrust doctrines have struggled to address the complex characteristics of digital markets, including network effects, data-driven market power, zero-price services, and winner-takes-all dynamics. The paper identifies a critical tension at the heart of digital antitrust reform: the imperative to prevent monopolistic entrenchment by dominant gatekeepers, while simultaneously preserving the conditions for dynamic innovation that drives technological progress. Through an analysis of four core themes: the Regulation of Antitrust Laws in Digital Economies, Impact of Antitrust reforms on innovation, Evolution of Antitrust reforms with technological advancement and What adaptive regulation looks like, this paper constructs a multi-layered understanding of what antitrust reform looks like. The findings suggest that ex-ante regulatory instruments, such as the EU Digital Markets Act, represent a paradigm shift from reactive, litigation-based enforcement towards forward-looking structural obligations on designated gatekeepers. While such mechanisms offer greater predictability and speed, they also risk over-regulation and innovation deterrence if not calibrated with precision. The paper argues for a hybrid regulatory architecture, one that combines robust ex-ante obligations with flexible ex-post enforcement, interoperability standards, and evidence-based threshold criteria to achieve a sustainable equilibrium between competitive markets and an innovation-enabling environment. |
| Date: | 2026–07–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:lawarc:dk8sp_v1 |
| By: | Einav, Liran; Guttel, Ehud; Kremer, Ilan; Lakan, Guy; Weisburd, Sarit |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of a unique reform that granted anonymity to plaintiffs in court rulings for personal injury claims. Our analysis measures changes in payments for personal injury versus property damage claims (which were not affected by the reform) for car accident cases handled by the major insurance firms in Israel between 2011-2020. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that the reform led to a 17% increase in payments for personal injury claims. We interpret this estimate as the cost claimants were prepared to bear prior to the reform, through accepting lower settlements, to avoid the privacy loss incurred by a court ruling. This result underscores the economic value individuals place on privacy, revealing that concerns about public exposure can significantly influence decision-making and negotiation outcomes. Our findings demonstrate the importance of privacy considerations in customer interactions where sensitive information is often involved. |
| JEL: | K41 D04 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19831 |
| By: | Alves, Augusto; Pantaleão, Bruno; Santos, Alei |
| Abstract: | We examine the mechanisms through which full-time schooling reduces crime, exploiting the staggered rollout of São Paulo’s Integral Education Program (2012 - 2024) using a difference-in-differences estimator. Full-time school adoption reduces property crime by 18.8 incidents per hexagon-year (7%), driven primarily by robbery. Crucially, effects are temporally concentrated: robbery falls 12.1% during school hours versus 8.8% outside them, and theft falls 25.8% during school hours while increasing 4.2% outside. This pattern provides direct evidence for an incapacitation mechanism—crime reduction is largest when school supervision is most direct. Underage-perpetrator crimes are reduced disproportionately (65% for theft, 23% for robbery), indicating school-based supervision particularly deters youth. Full-time schooling operates primarily through direct supervision rather than longer-run opportunity-cost mechanisms, a finding relevant for developing country policy |
| Date: | 2026–07–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8a6t7_v1 |
| By: | Arvind Magesan; Juan S. Morales; Arieda Muço |
| Abstract: | We study how legal threats to social media platforms shape online political communication. We exploit the sharp implementation of a 2020 Turkish law that required social media companies to establish local offices and provide user data to the government on request. Assembling a panel of over 700 Twitter users and 7 million posts, we use a differences-in-differences design to compare dissenters, individuals publicly critical of the reform when announced, to other groups unlikely to be affected, such as celebrities. We find that dissenters and political exiles post 15-20 percent fewer tweets following implementation, and engagement with their content falls sharply. These short-run chilling effects emerge despite limited platform compliance, indicating that anticipated enforcement risk, rather than actual enforcement, drives the effect. In the long run, the chilling effects dissipate. Our findings suggest that states can govern online speech indirectly, by regulating platforms rather than users, but that such effects may be self-limiting in the absence of visible enforcement. |
| Keywords: | online dissent, social media, internet regulation, chilling effects, self-censorship, digital repression |
| JEL: | D72 K24 L82 L86 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12873 |
| By: | Lafontaine, Francine; Saattvic, Saattvic; Slade, Margaret |
| Abstract: | No-poaching clauses (NPCs) have recently come under scrutiny due to their potentially anti-competitive impact on wages. However they can also enhance efficiency. We use data from the US chain restaurant industry to assess the effect that such clauses have on wages and we find robust evidence of a negative impact. Specifically, the legal cases, proposed legislation, and negative attention surrounding NPCs, which led many chains to remove such clauses from their contracts, caused wages in those chains to rise by about 5% relative to chains that did not have NPCs. We show that the impact of removal is greater for franchisors with larger shares of the job ad market, which is a measure of the job opportunities that are denied to their employees under NPCs. We also find that the effect of the clauses on the wages of managers is not statistically different from the effect on the wages of workers. We attribute these wage effects to the removal of frictions and barriers to labor mobility. |
| Keywords: | Franchising |
| JEL: | J31 J43 J63 K21 L43 L83 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19548 |