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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Janine Boshoff; Steve Machin; Matteo Sandi |
| Abstract: | This paper combines ten years of idiosyncratic variation in school closure dates for all secondary schools in England with administrative records of educational and criminal trajectories linked at the individual level to study the impact of the school schedule on the dynamics of youth crime. When school is not in session, students commit more property offences, more serious violent offences and fewer minor violent offences. Thefts, robberies and violent assaults drive these effects. This is novel evidence of strong incapacitation effects from the protective factor of schooling which affects not only the incidence of violence, but also its severity. |
| Keywords: | crime, school attendance, exclusion. |
| JEL: | I20 K14 K42 H44 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11812 |
| By: | John Zhuang Liu; Wenwei Peng; Shaoda Wang; Daniel Xu |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how power lawyers shape judicial and economic outcomes by studying the “revolving door” between judges and lawyers in China’s judicial system—namely, former judges who quit the bench to practice law. In otherwise identical lawsuits, revolving-door lawyers deliver 8−23% higher win rate for their clients. Their performance in home versus away courts suggests these gains stem from both “know how” and “know who.” We extend the theoretical framework of Dewatripont and Tirole (1999) to show that revolving-door lawyers create countervailing forces in society: they enhance judicial decision-making through evidence and reasoning, but also exploit strategic arguments and connections to bias outcomes in favor of their clients. We estimate a structural model of the judicial process to quantify these trade-offs and find that increasing the supply of power lawyers can have a non-monotonic effect on equilibrium judicial quality. |
| JEL: | K0 P48 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33708 |
| By: | Alonso-Armesto, Luis (University of Oxford); Cáceres-Delpiano, Julio (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Lekfuangfu, Warn N. (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of increasing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (from 16 to 18 years old) on the academic performance, substance use, and peer behaviours of teenagers. Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, we exploit regional MLDA reforms in Spain and PISA data to identify significant improvements in mathematics and science performance, particularly among male teenagers and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. A complementary analysis using data from the Survey on Drug Use in Secondary Education in Spain indicates that these academic gains coincide with reductions in alcohol consumption, intoxication, smoking, and marijuana use, suggesting a link between substance use and educational outcomes. Moreover, the reform led to less drinking and less use of illicit drugs within peer networks, highlighting the amplifying role of peer effects in policy impact. |
| Keywords: | difference-in-discontinuities, alcohol, risky behaviour, education, minimum legal drinking age, PISA, ESTUDES, Spain, teenagers |
| JEL: | I18 I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17772 |
| By: | Diego de Maria Andr\'e; Jos\'e Raimundo Carvalho |
| Abstract: | According to WHO (2013), in general 30% of all women worldwide who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. However, only a small percentage of intimate partner violence (IPV) victims report it to the police. This phenomenon of under-reporting is known as ``dark figure''. This paper aims to investigate the factors associated with the reporting decision of IPV victims to the police in Brazil using the third wave of the ``Pesquisa de Condi\c{c}\~{o}es Socioecon\^{o}micas e Viol\^{e}ncia Dom\'{e}stica e Familiar contra a Mulher ($PCSVDF^{Mulher}$)''. Using a bivariate probit regression model with sample selection, we found that older white women, those who do not tolerate domestic violence, and women who have experienced physical violence are more likely to report IPV to the police. In contrast, married women, those with partners who abuse alcohol and those who witnessed or knew that their mothers had experienced IPV, are less likely to report it to law enforcement. |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2504.05102 |
| By: | Timothy Besley; Dan Bogart; Jonathan Chapman; Nuno Palma |
| Abstract: | We show that state legal capacity contributed to economic development during the Industrial Revolution. The British parliament relied on local magistrates, known as Justices of the Peace (JPs), to enforce property rights, resolve disputes, and administer public services. Areas with greater legal capacity—more JPs—in 1700 experienced greater population growth and structural change over 140 years. More legal capacity also led to more human capital, fiscal capacity, and infrastructure development. Plausibly exogenous variation in the location of JPs supports a causal interpretation of the findings. These results illustrate the importance of street-level legal institutions for economic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Legal Capacity, State Capacity, Industrial Revolution, Justices of the Peace, Historical Political Economy, Law and Economics, Britain |
| JEL: | H80 K40 N13 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:allwps:0011 |
| By: | Benjamin W. Arold; Elliott Ash; W. Bentley MacLeod; Suresh Naidu |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes novel natural language methods to measure worker rights from collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for use in empirical economic analysis. Applying unsupervised text-as-data algorithms to a new collection of 30, 000 CBAs from Canada in the period 1986-2015, we parse legal obligations (e.g., “the employer shall provide...”) and legal rights (e.g., “workers shall receive...”) from the contract text. We validate that contract clauses provide worker rights, which include both amenities and control over the work environment. Companies that provide more worker rights score highly on a survey indicating pro-worker management practices. Using time-varying province-level variation in labor income tax rates, we find that higher taxes increase the share of worker-rights clauses while reducing pre-tax wages in unionized firms, consistent with a substitution effect away from taxed compensation (wages) toward untaxed amenities (worker rights). Further, an exogenous increase in the value of outside options (from a leave-one-out instrument for labor demand) increases the share of worker rights clauses in CBAs. Combining the regression estimates, we infer that a one-standard-deviation increase in worker rights is valued at about 5.7% of wages. |
| JEL: | J50 J83 K12 K31 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33605 |
| By: | Pasquale Accardo (University of Bath); Giuseppe De Feo (University of Liverpool); Giacomo De Luca (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele; Free University of Bozen-Bolzano) |
| Abstract: | So far, the application of network analysis to crime has been limited to the relationships within criminal networks. We build a novel network dataset by encoding information coming from the archive of the Italian Anti-mafia Commission, describing relationships of collusion and exchange of favours between mafia members and the political, economic and social elites in Sicily, the homeland of the Sicilian mafia. We apply network analysis techniques to study the "topological" role of mafia bosses and show that they strategically position themselves in the social network as an interface between the criminal and the legitimate world. |
| Date: | 2024–04–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eid:wpaper:58184 |
| By: | Grenadier, Brian M. (Stanford U); Grenadier, Steven R. (Stanford U) |
| Abstract: | Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) are now a standard tool used by prosecutors to punish corporate crime. Under a DPA, the defendant escapes prosecution by living up to the terms of the contract. However, if the prosecutor declares a breach, the defendant may face immediate prosecution. We present an equilibrium theoretical model of the terms of a DPA, highlighting a little-recognized, yet potentially valuable benefit accorded the defendant: the option to breach. While at the initiation of the agreement, a breach might likely be seen as a much more painful outcome than adhering to the DPA, over time this situation could change. Using the tools of real option analysis, we demonstrate that DPAs may embed valuable optionality, particularly for longer-term agreements with significant uncertainty over future prosecution outcomes. Since DPA penalties must price in such optionality, naïve comparisons to agreements without optionality, such as plea bargains, will mistakenly conclude that DPA terms are overly onerous and oppressive. |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:4231 |
| By: | Caitlin K. Myers; Daniel L. Dench; Mayra Pineda-Torres |
| Abstract: | We use difference-in-differences research designs to estimate the effects of abortion bans on births at the county level, leveraging data on changes in driving distance and appointment availability at the nearest facility where abortion remains legal. We find that bans alone increase births, but their total impact depends on geographic barriers to access. Even in counties where distance and appointment availability remain unchanged, a total ban leads to a 1.0% increase in births, suggesting a chilling effect—potentially due to legal uncertainty, misinformation, or logistical hurdles—that is independent of measurable barriers. However, the effects grow substantially with travel burdens. In counties where the nearest abortion facility was 50 miles away pre-Dobbs, a total ban increases births by 2.8% when distance rises to 300 miles. Limited appointment availability in destination cities further amplifies these effects, resulting in an additional 0.4 percentage point increase in births. The largest increases occur among Black and Hispanic women, those without a college degree, and unmarried women. We do not observe evidence that the effects have diminished with time despite expanded logistical, financial, and telehealth abortion support, underscoring the persistent role that geographic barriers play in abortion access. |
| JEL: | I11 I12 I18 J13 K23 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33548 |
| By: | Jetson Leder-Luis; Anup Malani |
| Abstract: | Healthcare fraud imposes a sizable cost on U.S. public healthcare budgets and distorts health care provision. We examine the economics of health care fraud and enforcement using theory and data and connect to a growing literature on the topic. We first offer a new economic definition of health care fraud that captures and connects the wide range of activities prosecuted as fraud. We define fraud as any divergence between the care an insurer says a patient qualifies for, the care a provider provides, and the care a provider bills for. Our definition clarifies the economic consequences of different categories of fraud and provides a framework for understanding the slate of existing studies. Next, we examine the incentives for committing and for prosecuting fraud. We show how fraud is driven by a combination of inadequate (expected) penalties for fraud and imperfect reimbursement rates. Public anti-fraud litigation is driven by the relative monetary, political or career returns to prosecuting fraud and by prosecutorial budgets. Finally, we examine the prevalence of health care fraud prosecutions across types of fraud and types of care, and across the US, by machine learning on text data from Department of Justice press releases. |
| JEL: | I13 K40 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33592 |