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on Regulation |
| By: | Simon Deakin; Colm McLaughlin |
| Abstract: | Legislation mandating equality of pay between women and men was among the earliest forms of sex discrimination legislation to be adopted in Britain. However, the model embodied in the Equal Pay Act 1970 is increasingly being questioned: the law is, at one and the same time, highly complex and difficult to apply, while apparently contributing little to the further narrowing of the pay gap. As a result there is a growing debate about whether a shift in regulatory strategy is needed, away from direct legal enforcement to a more flexible approach, based around the concept of 'reflexive law'. This paper provides an assessment of whether reflexive approaches are likely to work in the equal pay area. |
| Keywords: | equal pay, sex discrimination, reflexive law |
| JEL: | K31 J7 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp350&r=reg |
| By: | Catherine Tucker (MIT Sloan); Amalia Miller (Department of Economics, University of Virginia) |
| Abstract: | Some policymakers argue that consumers need legal protection of their privacy before they adopt interactive technologies. Others contend that privacy regulations impose costs that deter adoption. We contribute to this growing debate by quantifying the effect of state privacy regulation on the diffusion of Electronic Medical Record technology (EMR). EMR allows medical providers to store and exchange patient information using computers rather than paper records. Hospitals may not adopt EMR if patients feel their privacy is not safeguarded by regulation. Alternatively, privacy protection may inhibit adoption if hospitals cannot benefit from exchanging patient information with one another. In the US, medical privacy laws that restrict the ability of hospitals to disclose patient information vary across time and across states. We exploit this variation to explore how privacy laws affect whether hospitals adopt EMR. Our results suggest that inhibition of EMR's network benefits reduces hospital adoption by up to 25 percent. We find similar evidence when we control for the endogeneity of state laws using variation in signups to the Do Not Call list. |
| Keywords: | Technology adoption, privacy laws, network effects, hospitals |
| JEL: | I1 K2 L5 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0716&r=reg |
| By: | Simon Deakin; Priya Lele; Mathias Siems |
| Abstract: | We present evidence on the evolution of labour law in five countries (the UK, USA, Germany, France and India) using a newly-created dataset which measures legal change over time. The results cast light on the claim that legal origin, or the influence of common law and civil law regulatory styles, affects the content of labour law regimes. We find some divergence between common law and civil law countries at the aggregate level but a more complex picture when the index is decomposed so as to identify changes in specific areas of labour law. We discuss the potential significance of this relatively new approach to the measurement of law for understanding the forces at work in the evolution of labour law. |
| Keywords: | labour law, legal origin |
| JEL: | J53 K31 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp352&r=reg |
| By: | Rita Almeida (World Bank and IZA); Pedro Carneiro (University College London, IFS, cemmap and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of an increase in the enforcement of labor regulations on unemployment and inequality, using city level data from Brazil. We find that stricter enforcement (affecting the payment of mandated benefits to formal workers) leads to: higher unemployment, less income inequality, a higher proportion of formal employment, and a lower formal wage premium. Our results are consistent with a model where stricter enforcement causes a contraction in labor demand in the formal sector; and where workers value mandated benefits highly, so that there is an increase in the formal sector labor supply, an increase in the willingness to become unemployed to search for a formal sector job, and a decrease in labor supply to the informal sector. |
| Keywords: | enforcement, labor regulations, inequality, unemployment, informal sector |
| JEL: | J23 J30 K31 D63 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3094&r=reg |
| By: | Simon Deakin; Wanjiru Njoya |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to reassess the place of labour law in the wider area of employment relations research and to argue the case for labour law's importance to social scientists. We give an analytical account of the principal institutional features of labour law as a form of legal regulation, from an interdisciplinary perspective which takes into account both the internal workings of the labour law system and the social and economic context within which it has evolved. We analyze, in the manner of an internal or 'immanent' critique, the categories which are generally used within labour law discourse to describe the social and economic relations of employment; account for their emergence and evolution in historical terms; consider the origins of their diversity across different national systems; and look at future prospects for convergence or divergence. |
| Keywords: | labour law; employment relations; legal diversity; legal convergence |
| JEL: | K31 J5 J8 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp349&r=reg |
| By: | Richard L. Revesz; Robert Stavins |
| Abstract: | This chapter for the Handbook of Law and Economics provides an economic perspective of environmental law and policy. We examine the ends of environmental policy, that is, the setting of goals and targets, beginning with normative issues, notably the Kaldor-Hicks criterion and the related method of assessment known as benefit-cost analysis. We examine this analytical method in detail, including its theoretical foundations and empirical methods of estimation of compliance costs and environmental benefits. We review critiques of benefit-cost analysis, and examine alternative approaches to analyzing the goals of environmental policies. <br><br>We examine the means of environmental policy, that is, the choice of specific policy instruments, beginning with an examination of potential criteria for assessing alternative instruments, with particular focus on cost-effectiveness. The theoretical foundations and experiential highlights of individual instruments are reviewed, including conventional, command-and-control mechanisms, market-based instruments, and liability rules. Three cross-cutting issues receive attention: uncertainty; technological change; and distributional considerations. We identify normative lessons in regard to design, implementation, and the identification of new applications, and we examine positive issues: the historical dominance of command-and-control; the prevalence in new proposals of tradeable permits allocated without charge; and the relatively recent increase in attention given to market-based instruments. <br><br>We also examine the question of how environmental responsibility is and should be allocated among the various levels of government. We provide a positive review of the responsibilities of Federal, state, and local levels of government in the environmental realm, plus a normative assessment of this allocation of regulatory responsibility. We focus on three arguments that have been made for Federal environmental regulation: competition among political jurisdictions and the race to the bottom; transboundary environmental problems; and public choice and systematic bias. |
| JEL: | K32 Q28 Q38 Q48 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13575&r=reg |
| By: | Jens Metge |
| Abstract: | Foreign firms to break into a new market commonly undercut domestic prices and, hence, subsidise the consumer's costs of switching in order to get a positive market share. However, this may constitute the act of dumping as drawn in Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Consequently, domestic firms trying to protect themselves against potential competitors often demand an anti-dumping (AD) investigation. In a two-period model of market entry with horizontally differentiated products and exogenous switching costs, it is demonstrated that the mere existence of switching costs and AD-rules may result in an anti-competition effect: the administratively set minimum-price rule protects the domestic firm and yields larger prices. Therefore, there are some consumers who will not buy either product in both periods although they would have done so in absence of AD. Consequently, competition policy should reassess the AD-regulation. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Policy; Anti-Dumping; Hotelling; Switching Costs; Market Entry |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:huj:dispap:dp467&r=reg |
| By: | Jonsson, Thomas (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the Bresnahan-Lau framework to analyze whether policy reforms specifically affecting Swedish dairy cooperatives, i.e. the two-price system (an input quota, 1986-1991) and the general deregulation of dairy policy (1991-1994), had any market power effects on the Swedish butter market. It is hypothesized that the two-price system enhanced market power, while the deregulation, making exports of butter less profitable, led to a lower level of market power exercised by dairy cooperatives. To account for non-stationary variables, a dynamic error correction model is adopted. The results show that the null hypotheses of no market power effect, for either of the two reforms, cannot be rejected at any reasonable significance level. |
| Keywords: | agricultural policy; cooperatives; market power |
| JEL: | L22 L51 L66 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2007–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0721&r=reg |
| By: | John Buchanan; Simon Deakin |
| Abstract: | We suggest, on the basis of empirical research into the implementation of recent legal reforms, that Japan is not moving inexorably towards a 'global standard' in corporate governance, based on external monitoring and a market for corporate control. Japanese corporate governance is nevertheless changing: in part as an indirect response to legal initiatives, new structures and practices are emerging, aimed at providing greater flexibility in decision-making, while retaining the organisational core of the Japanese firm. The paradoxical effect of legal reforms aimed, in large part, at transplanting the global standard, may be to renew the distinctive Japanese model of the corporation. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance, company law reform, Japan |
| JEL: | G34 K22 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp351&r=reg |
| By: | Barbara Luppi (CEFIN and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy); Massimiliano Marzo (University of Bologna and The Rimini Centre for Ecomonic Analysis, Italy); Antonello E. Scorcu (University of Bologna and The Rimini Centre for Ecomonic Analysis, Italy) |
| Abstract: | We estimate a model of credit risk for portfolios of Small and Medium-sized enterprises, conditional on being a non-profit or for-profit firms. The estimation is based on a unique dataset on Italian firms provided by a large commercial bank. We show that the main variables to identify creditworthiness are different for non-profit andcrucial for non-profit firms. Classification-JEL: G21, G28 |
| Keywords: | SME finance; Basel II; Retail banking; Non-profit |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:30-07&r=reg |