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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Megalokonomou, Rigissa (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how gender representation affects collective decision-making in expert committees. I exploit quasi-random assignment of judges to panels in the Greek Supreme Court using newly digitized data on 3, 700 criminal appeals. I find that panels with more female judges are more likely to reject appeals and less likely to delegate cases. Effects are nonlinear and emerge primarily once at least three of five judges are female; below this level, representation has no detectable effect. The mechanism appears to operate at the panel rather than the individual level - panels with a higher share of female judges take significantly longer to decide, especially in complex cases and in familiar panel compositions, consistent with more thorough deliberation rather than coordination costs. These findings suggest that diversity policies targeting modest increases in female representation will have limited impact unless they shift the deliberative composition of the group itself. |
| Keywords: | panel decisions, gender composition, quasi-random assignment, Supreme Court |
| JEL: | J16 D03 D71 J78 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18639 |
| By: | Rubén Poblete-Cazenave (Department d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain and Tinbergen Institute, Netherlands.) |
| Abstract: | In the United States, law enforcement kills three people per day, yet official statistics record only half. Using detailed geo‑location of police killings and exploiting spatial and temporal discontinuities in medicolegal death‑investigation systems across counties from 2000–2024, I show that sheriff‑coroner jurisdictions are 15–19 percentage points (approx. 30 percent) less likely to report killings to the FBI. The effect concentrates among Black victims and increases after high‑profile killings (Michael Brown, George Floyd), suggesting public scrutiny intensifies suppression rather than deterring it. The findings highlight how institutional dependence can systematically distort official record and hinder accountability. |
| Keywords: | Police Killings, Underreporting, Medico-legal death investigatio noffice |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea2604 |
| By: | Fieles-Ahmad, Omar (Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg); Kvasnicka, Michael (Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) |
| Abstract: | Following reunification, anti-foreigner crimes rose sharply in the former GDR. Using county-level data for the early 1990s, we study if regional access to Western TV, i.e. non-socialist media, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall had an impact on regional levels of serious anti-foreigner crime (murder and arson) in East Germany. We find that East German counties with no access to Western TV exhibit higher rates of such crimes, as in the ’valley of the clueless’ around Dresden. This crime-attenuating effect of Western TV proves robust in a battery of robustness checks and underscores the importance of media for anti-foreigner attitudes and crimes well before the rise of the internet and social media. |
| Keywords: | crimes against foreigners, Western TV, immigration, East Germany |
| JEL: | F22 J15 K42 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18648 |
| By: | Vargas, Juan F.; Sviatschi, Maria Micaela; Cabra-Ruiz, Nicolas |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the mutually reinforcing relationship between migration and organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. We argue that mobility and criminal governance are part of an interdependent system in which organized crime generates displacement through violence, extortion, and territorial control, while migration flows create new routes for criminal actors to expand geographically as well as new markets that they exploit for profit. We propose a novel conceptual framework to account for this feedback loop and analyze the available empirical evidence through its lens, which allows us to both formalize the mechanisms linking migration and organized crime and inform policy avenues. While the evidence suggests that migrants as individuals are largely victims of organized crime, large-scale mobility can also facilitate the expansion of criminal organizations. We hypothesize that, by reinforcing incomplete narratives that associate migration with insecurity, the latter dynamics dominate the former in shaping public perceptions in the region and encourage restrictive policies that heighten irregularity and migrants’ exposure to predation. We show that information campaigns can partially correct seemingly biased perceptions and policy design crucially mediates the migration–crime nexus. Specifically, regularization and protection programs can reduce migrants’ vulnerability and organized crime’s profits, whereas deterrence and exclusion may strengthen illicit markets. The findings underscore the need for coordinated regional responses that combine rights-based migration management with strengthened state capacity to confront organized crime. |
| Date: | 2026–05–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:p4b5w_v1 |
| By: | Nikita Melnikov; Carlos Schmidt-Padilla; Maria Micaela Sviatschi |
| Abstract: | We study how criminal organizations affect economic development. We exploit a natural experiment in El Salvador, where these criminal organizations emerged due to an exogenous shift in American immigration policy that led to the deportation of gang leaders from the United States to El Salvador. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design that focuses on the gang-created system of borders, we find that individuals in gang-controlled neighborhoods have less material well-being, income, and education than individuals living only 50 meters away but outside of gang territory. None of these discontinuities existed before the arrival of the gangs. A key mechanism behind the results is that gangs restrict individuals’ mobility, affecting their labor-market options by preventing them from commuting to other parts of the city. The results are not determined by high rates of selective migration, differential exposure to extortion and violence, or differences in public goods provision. |
| Keywords: | Gangs, Development, Mobility, Crime |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:novafr:wp2501 |
| By: | Ferid Belhaj |
| Abstract: | The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 2025 advisory opinion on climate change marks a significant expansion of international law into the governance of global public goods. By framing climate inaction as a potential violation of international law and human rights, the Court advances a progressive legal agenda that extends beyond existing political consensus and enforcement capacity. This article develops a realist critique of the ruling that avoids both legal romanticism and nihilism. It argues that the opinion cannot compel state compliance in an anarchic system characterized by sovereignty, power asymmetries, and strategic interests, and that excessive judicial ambition may risk undermining institutional credibility. At the same time, the article contends that, in the context of climate change as an existential risk, normative ambition by international courts can be strategically consequential. The ICJ’s climate opinion functions less as enforceable law than as a mechanism for reshaping legitimacy, empowering litigation and civil society, and increasing the political costs of inaction. The ruling thus reveals a central paradox of international law under realism: law cannot govern without power, yet it can still influence power by redefining the terms of political contestation. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:rpcoen:pp_09-26 |
| By: | Nemschoff, Danielle |
| Abstract: | Police officers in the United States are often the first responders to mental health crises, despite growing concerns about whether traditional policing is well-suited to these encounters. One response has been crisis-intervention team (CIT) training for police. Unlike alternatives such as unarmed responders or co-responder models, CIT seeks to improve outcomes by training officers to de-escalate mental health crises themselves. This paper provides causal evidence on whether CIT training reduces police use of force and arrests during mental health incidents. I construct a comprehensive administrative dataset linking calls for service, police reports, use-of-force records, officer demographics, and detailed training records from the New Orleans Police Department from 2017 through 2023. To estimate the causal effect of CIT training, I use a difference-in-differences framework that exploits variation in the timing of training across officers. Specifically, I compare changes in propensity to use force and make an arrest for officers before and after they receive training to those of officers who are not-yet-trained but will be trained in the future. I find no evidence that CIT training reduces officers’ use of force or likelihood of making an arrest in mental health incidents. I also find no spillover effects on officer behavior in other types of calls. Importantly, officers who select into training are officers who are already less likely to use force even prior to training, indicating strong positive selection. Taken together, these results suggest that voluntary training programs, as currently implemented, may not meaningfully change officer behavior and instead primarily attract officers who are already less prone to use force. |
| Keywords: | policing; crisis-intervention; mental health; police; use of force; arrest; crisis response; CIT |
| JEL: | J0 K0 |
| Date: | 2026–05–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:129062 |
| By: | Hans-Bernd Schäfer (Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany); Ram Singh (Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi) |
| Abstract: | The standard economic analysis of liability rules primarily focuses on the direct accident costs eligible for compensation. However, accidents often create other costs that are as large as, or even higher than, the direct accident costs, which remain uncompensated because their compensation is legally inadmissible or impracticable. In this paper, we present a simple model of the uncompensated tertiary and third-party costs associated with accidents. We show that including these costs in the conceptualization of the due level of care, even without increasing compensation, significantly improves the relative efficiency of fault liability over strict liability. We show that if the due care level is enhanced appropriately to account for the uncompensated costs, fault liability yields higher social welfare than the standard strict liability. This claim holds even under variable activity levels. We show that the welfare-maximizing and incentive-compatible due care level is higher than what Hand’s rule will suggest. Further, the superiority of fault liability with enhanced care standard over strict liability increases with the importance of uncompensated costs relative to direct accident costs. Moreover, the fault-based liability, we propose, provides an “error-tolerant” mechanism and performs better than the alternatives across several categories of accidents. Thus, we provide a new case for the high-standard-based fault liability vis-à-vis strict liability. |
| Keywords: | Accidents, Hand Rule, Uncompensated Tertiary Costs, Third-party Costs, Punitive Damages, Fault-liability, Strict Liability, Activity Levels JEL codes: K13, D62 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cde:cdewps:361 |
| By: | Morell, Alexander; Schellenberg, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper cautions against the use of consumer protection as a Trojan horse for broader regulation of third-party litigation funding (TPLF) in the EU. The EU already operates a uniform consumer protection framework that prevents adverse outcomes for consumers across the board, including legal services. Section II evaluates a selection of arguments commonly advanced in the debate on regulating TPLF. It reviews frequently invoked concerns and demonstrates why they are unlikely to materialize, suggesting that proponents of regulating TPLF overstate its risks. Section III situates these concerns within the existing EU law framework, demonstrating that many of them are already mitigated by existing legislation. We therefore challenge the premise that restricting litigation funding advances customer protection and advocate for a carefully calibrated approach that preserves the functions of TPLF, intervening only when concrete and demonstrable risks can be observed. |
| Keywords: | Third-Party Litigation Funding, TPLF, EU, Consumer Protection |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:341093 |
| By: | Teufel, Julia (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Microeconomics & Public Economics); Kibbe, Alexandra; Bartsch, Nicole; Rusch, Hannes (RS: GSBE UM-BIC, Microeconomics & Public Economics, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research) |
| Abstract: | Police officers encounter the darker sides of human behavior on a daily basis, including crime and challenging interactions with civilians. Moreover, officers are bound by strict social hierarchies within the police force. Survey evidence, mostly from North America, suggests that such exposure can lead to substantial attitude change in police recruits, especially when combined with a strong “police culture.” These changes often tilt toward more authoritarian and less prosocial orientations. However, most existing evidence relies on cross-sectional data and cannot capture within-person change. We extend this work to a German context using a truly longitudinal design. New police students were surveyed three times during their first year of training, from entry through their initial field experiences. We measured a range of attitudes and personality traits, including social dominance orientation, HEXACO’s honesty-humility, and general trust, and compared them with two reference groups: a large sample from the German population and first-year university students surveyed at the same times with identical instruments. Our results reveal notable changes over time. Police recruits start their training with higher-than-average levels of honesty-humility and trust, suggesting a more positive social outlook. However, they also show higher SDO, which increases further across waves, while other measures decline, gradually converging toward population averages. These findings suggest that hierarchical environments, and repeated exposure to high-stress social encounters may shape attitudes during early police socialization. Beyond their academic implications, our results offer practical insights for designing police training programs that help sustain recruits’ prosocial motivations and trust in society. |
| Keywords: | police, personality, attitude change, LONGITUDINAL EVIDENCE |
| Date: | 2026–05–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2026004 |
| By: | Morell, Alexander; Schellenberg, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper cautions against the regulation of third-party litigation funding (TPLF) in the EU. TPLF is indispensable for enabling collective redress, which in turn is indispensable for internalizing externalities in a free market economy. Looking at the governance structure of TPLF more closely, we argue that contractual coordination and private incentives are sufficient to shape TPLF into a socially beneficial enabler of collective redress. TPLF achieves four things: First and foremost, it provides funds for projects that are excluded from equity markets as well as bank loans. Second, it allows for extreme specialization of the vehicle conducting the litigation aligning incentives with original claimants. Third, it reduces the costs of risk through diversification and, forth, it reduces agency costs arising from a conflict between original claimants and attorneys (which is reinforced by the regulatory suppression of contingency fees). TPLF achieves these things by two means. First, funders combine the skillset that allows them to price the project with access to capital markets. They essentially sell capital market access to litigation projects. Thereby they also shift risk away from the specialized vehicle to diversified funders, reducing the cost of risk and enabling the vehicle to specialize. Second, taking the funder on board attenuates the agency conflict between attorneys and original claimants by enlisting it as a designated monitor whose incentives are aligned with those of original claimants. As scenarios of harm remain hypothetical, we conclude that there is no need to regulate TPLF at this point. |
| Keywords: | Litigation, Civil Procedure, Third Party Litigation Funding, Corporate Governance |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:341092 |