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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Yosuke Jin; Sofia Amaral-Garcia |
| Abstract: | A well-functioning justice system is indispensable to business activity and to a society as a whole. Judicial efficiency measured by trial length, one of the essential factors in the effectiveness of the justice system, ensures contract enforcement, which is the basis of market transactions. Judicial efficiency is closely associated with accessibility to judicial services and the certainty of judicial decisions, raising people’s confidence. Portugal has undertaken numerous judicial reforms in the past, to the extent that it is difficult to disentangle and evaluate fully the effects of each reform. Overall, judicial efficiency remains weak, as reflected in the average trial length and bottlenecks in a number of courts. The data collection system, significantly developed as part of the reforms, can be more fully utilised for allocating court resources. The autonomy of the judicial council and court presidents can also be strengthened so that they can effectively manage resources. Individual judges can be better incentivised through performance-oriented evaluation. Competition in the legal profession sector can be enhanced while increasing the transparency of legal services. Also, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms can be developed further, meeting different needs for judicial services, in particular those on insolvency, while alleviating court congestion. Finally, building on past and ongoing reform efforts, the judicial system should continue to improve the capacity to undertake forensic investigations of economic and financial crimes.This Working Paper relates to the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of Portugal(http://www.oecd.org/economy/por tugal-economic-snapshot/) |
| Keywords: | allocation of court resources, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, governance in the court system, Judicial efficiency, regulation in the legal service sector, trial length, workload assessment |
| JEL: | D02 K23 K40 K42 |
| Date: | 2019–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1567-en&r=all |
| By: | Budzinski, Oliver; Stöhr, Annika |
| Abstract: | Nowadays, merger control predominantly relies upon a strict analysis of the effects from merger and acquisitions on effective competition. However, there is scope for so-called public interest considerations in several European merger control regimes and recently a number of European politicians have called for more elbowroom for non-competition-oriented interventions into merger control. For instance, they did so in the context of the prohibition of the Siemens-Alstommerger and the upcoming industrial policy discussion about European Champions. Since the social welfare effects of competitive markets present an important public interest in itself, additional public interest considerations justifying an intervention need to be non-market in the sense that these goals stand in conflict with competition. However, a trade-off between effective competition and public interest, i.e. public interests that are better served through market power then through effective competition, is a rare phenomenon. This paper gives an overview of public interest considerations in the merger policy of European Union member states and analyzes four jurisdictions in more detail. We find that the institutional designs how public interests considerations are included in the merger control regimes lack focus on non-market public interest considerations across the analyzed jurisdictions. Furthermore, there are relevant shortcomings regarding transparency and legal certainty. Moreover, our ex-pots analysis shows that the empirical record of past public interest-motivated interventions is questionable with only few interventions yielding the desired effects. Therefore, we suggest revising the public interest regulations in the respective merger control regulations by narrowing their focus to real non-market public interests and by levying decision power on less politically-influenced bodies. |
| Keywords: | competition policy,antitrust,merger control,industrial economics,public interest,governance,competition law,law & economics,institutional economics,German competition policy,UK competition policy,French competition policy,Austrian competition policy |
| JEL: | K21 K23 D43 L51 F52 F55 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:130&r=all |
| By: | Abhijit Banerjee; Esther Duflo; Daniel Keniston; Nina Singh |
| Abstract: | Should police activity be narrowly focused and high force, or widely-dispersed but of moderate intensity? Critics of intense “hot spot” policing argue it primarily displaces, not reduces, crime. But if learning about enforcement takes time, the police may take advantage of this period to intervene intensively in the most productive location. We propose a multi-armed bandit model of criminal learning and structurally estimate its parameters using data from a randomized controlled experiment on an anti-drunken driving campaign in Rajasthan, India. In each police station, sobriety checkpoints were either rotated among 3 locations or fixed in the best location, and the intensity of the crackdown was cross-randomized. Rotating checkpoints reduced night accidents by 17%, and night deaths by 25%, while fixed checkpoints had no significant effects. In structural estimation, we show clear evidence of driver learning and strategic responses. We use these parameters to simulate environment-specific optimal enforcement policies. |
| JEL: | D83 K42 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26224&r=all |
| By: | Ekaterina Travova |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical analysis of possible manipulations of amounts of seized drugs, based on a unique dataset that contains full information on drug crimes in Russia reported during 2013-2014. First, using a standard bunching estimator, I investigate the incentives for police officers to manipulate and find that the motivation most likely arises from the officers’ performance evaluation system. Second, applying a novel bunching technique, I determine that police officers are more likely to manipulate the drug amounts seized from repeat offenders. The overall effect of manipulation is an additional year of incarceration, and this is not dependent on a guilty plea. |
| Keywords: | drug crimes; police discretion; performance evaluation; incentives; |
| JEL: | H11 H76 K14 K42 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp637&r=all |
| By: | Tim Lohse; Sven A. Simon |
| Abstract: | In today’s business environment, team work is omnipresent. But might teams be more prone toward non-compliance with laws and regulations than single individuals despite imminent neg-ative consequences of uncovering misconduct? The recent prevalence of corporate delinquencies gives rise to this concern. In our laboratory experiment, we investigate the determinants of teams’ compliance behavior. In particular, we disentangle the effect of deciding jointly as a team of two from sharing the economic consequences among both team members. Our findings provide evidence that teams are substantially less compliant than individuals are. This drop in compliance is driven by the joint, rather than the individual, liability of team members. In contrast, whether subjects make their decisions alone or together does not influence the overall compliance rate. When coordinating their compliance decision teams predominately discuss the risk of getting caught in an audit, and team decision-making is characterized by behavioral spillovers between team members. Holding each team member fully liable is a promising means to deter them from going astray. |
| Keywords: | compliance, lying, team decision, shared liability, audit, communication, laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C92 D91 K42 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7807&r=all |
| By: | Carlos A. Chávez (Universidad de Talca); James J. Murphy (Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage); John K. Stranlund (University of Massachusetts Amherst) |
| Abstract: | This work presents the results of framed field experiments designed to study the co-enforcement of access to common pool resources. The experiments were conducted in the field with participants in the territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) management scheme that regulates access to nearshore fisheries along the coast of Chile. In the experiments, TURF members not only decided on harvest but also invested in monitoring to deter poaching by outsiders. Treatments varied whether the monitoring investment was an individual decision or determined by a group vote. Per-unit sanctions for poaching were exogenous as if provided by a government authority, and we varied the sanction level. Our results suggest that co-enforcement, in which monitoring for poaching is provided by resource users and sanctions are levied by the government, can reduce poaching levels. Monitoring investments were not high enough to lift the expected marginal penalty for poaching above the marginal gain from poaching when the sanction for poaching was low, but expected marginal penalties were higher than the marginal gain from poaching when the sanction was high. Despite this, poaching levels were not sensitive to changes in monitoring levels and sanctions. While co-enforcement did not eliminate poaching, it did eliminate the gains from poaching in all but one treatment. |
| Keywords: | experimental economics, Common pool resources; enforcement; field experiments; poaching; territorial use rights fisheries; social dilemma; fisheries management; development economics; co-enforcement |
| JEL: | C72 C90 C93 D70 K42 Q22 Q28 Q56 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ala:wpaper:2019-01&r=all |
| By: | Sayid Mohammad Rifqi Noval (Islam Nusantara University) |
| Abstract: | After successfully getting the attention of countries in the Southeast Asia Region as the pioneer in presenting the Right to be Forgotten policy in its legal instruments, Indonesia must now account for the decision. The country must not only make sure the policy can be implemented, but also anticipate problems that will arise due to its implementation.The Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Amendment to the Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions is the basis for the enactment of the Right to be Forgotten policy in Indonesia (UU ITE) . This arrangement has led to debates, considering that to these days Right to be Forgotten is still a sore subject in European countries and the United States. Not only that, Indonesia currently has not had any laws specifically regulating data protection, even the provisions of Right to be Forgotten have not been regulated in detail that it has may lead to different interpretations.Cyberspace data or information related to legal cases in Indonesia is one of the problems that might occur; this includes not only the data existed before the case go on trial, but also the data presents after the case is decided by the court and the convict has served a sentence. This paper will discuss several events related to data and legal processes in Indonesia. The first is about a past photo of Angelina Sondakh, which proved her ownership of a Blackberry mobile phone that led to Supreme Court verdict for 10 years in a corruption case. The second is related to the release of data of legislative candidates who are ex-convicts by the General Election Commission in the General Election Process in 2019. The next data will be information to prove the public lie of Ratna Sarumpaet, an activist who claimed to have been persecuted, and the lie has sparked public criticism against the incident.These three cases have one thing in common, i.e. the presence of information or data that can be accessed via the internet having the potential to be used as an object of Right to be Forgotten. Therefore, regulations to ensure that Right to be Forgotten can work well in accordance with the legal provisions in Indonesia and without reducing other existing rights are necessary. |
| Keywords: | Right to be forgotten, data privacy, general data protection regulation |
| JEL: | K00 K00 K00 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9211550&r=all |
| By: | Yun-Hsien Diana LIN (National Tsing Hua University); Daw-Wei Wang (National Tsing Hua University) |
| Abstract: | The doctrine of the "best interests of the child" is the primary consideration for family court judges in making post-divorce custody decisions. However, a precise understanding of the "best interests" standard remains elusive. As Article 1055-1 of Civil Code requires judges in Taiwan to consider factors such as the age, gender, health condition and wish of the child, the character, occupation, financial condition and life style of the parents, the judge still has a wide range of discretion to reach the final decision. This article therefore aims to clarify: among the key factors, which ones take top priority in child custody decisions? Do judges in Taiwan generally favor father or mother after considering these factors? And when facts are properly gathered, is it possible to predict judicial decisions by computer algorithms?To answer the questions, over two thousands child custody cases are examined and features are labeled, then natural language processing (NLP) is employed to classify and analyze these decisions to make reliability assessments. Although this article is a work in progress, it discusses the preliminary results of an ongoing four-year research project supported by Taiwan Ministry of Technology. It is expected that with the help of NLP and descriptive statistics, the findings of this research will help to deliver a more predictable outcome for custody disputes. Moreover, the established judicial database can be a useful source toward a better understanding of judicial behavior. |
| Keywords: | best interests of the child, child custody, empirical legal studies, judicial behavior, judicial decision prediction |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8711618&r=all |
| By: | Titus Corlățean (“Dimitrie Cantemir†Christian University, Bucharest) |
| Abstract: | The Resolution 2253 (2019) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe deals with the question if the Sharia law (“Islamic law†) and the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. This question was raised within the context of the endorsement of the Cairo Declaration by three member states of the Council of Europe, states that also ratified the European Convention upon their accession to the Council of Europe (Albania, Azerbaijan, Turkey). The same question is relevant also for Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also for Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Palestine, whose parliaments enjoy partner for democracy status with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The European Court of Human Rights (the Grand Chamber) had already in 2003 the opportunity to give an answer to the above mentioned question: it “concurs in the Chamber’s view that Sharia is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy, as set forth in the Convention.†Based on its own assessment and a comprehensive report adopted by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, the Strasbourg Parliamentary Assembly concludes on the topic that “the various Islamic declarations on human rights..., while being more religious than legal, fail to reconcile Islam with universal human rights, especially insofar as they maintain the Sharia law as their unique source of reference. That includes the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam…†This study focuses on the analysis of the Assembly’s report and resolution and also on country specific recommendations. |
| Keywords: | European Convention, Human Rights, Sharia, Cairo Declaration, incompatibility |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:cpaper:15ct&r=all |
| By: | Harneet Kaur (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India) |
| Abstract: | In the personal sphere, the Indian women are facing various issues related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, guardianship, adoption and succession as they are the subjects of personal law, which varies from religion to religion and is attached to an individual at birth and applied to the person wherever she goes. After independence in the 1970s the government first time felt the need to review the ongoing women specific laws and their impact on the status of the women in India. This paper attempts to review the efforts made by the government in this direction. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section covers the legal obstructions for women justice. Second section dealt with the significant recommendations made by the two ‘High Level committee on the Status of Women in India’ (1974 and 2015) to improve the status of women in India. In the last section analysis were made on the basis of the statistical data of the women’s trials and to review the status of the justice delivered to women’s in the Indian Courts. The gap between the passing of laws and its implementation by the State needs to be examined, as mere passing of laws cannot transform the lives of women in society. The optimal use of laws can only be judged by the reportage of crimes under various acts and the punishments given to convicts under them. |
| Keywords: | Women, Indian Law, Justice, and Status of Women |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:029hk&r=all |
| By: | Muath Al-Zoubi (The University of Jordan) |
| Abstract: | Trafficking in persons is considered an illegal activity associated with transnational organised crimes. Interestingly, trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime is increasing quickly. This could be illustrated by the growing involvement of criminal organisations in trafficking in persons. Therefore, it is important to address this crime. This is important because trafficking in persons is a large-scale problem linked with international organised crimes. However, such addressing requires identifying a number of issues regarding trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime. These issues are the following: The first issue is clarifying the meaning of trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime. The second issue is analysing the transnational nature of the crime of trafficking in persons. The third issue is the criminal jurisdiction over trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime. The fourth issue is addressing trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime. The fifth issue is highlighting the international, regional, and national responses to trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime.Notably, addressing trafficking in persons as a transnational organised crime requires a holistic approach. This approach should include international, regional and national responses as well as states? cooperation and cooperation among international organisations. Such a holistic approach is significant because trafficking in persons is not limited to one country. Consequently, tackling trafficking in persons requires countries to unify their efforts and to make serious attempts in the fight against this crime. In this regard, it is to be noted that Jordan has made significant efforts of attempts to address the crime of trafficking in persons. Accordingly, the Jordanian example could be analysed and studied to determine what Jordan has done, how Jordan has done that and would that be done better in the future. |
| Keywords: | Trafficking in PersonsTransnational Organised Crimes |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9211198&r=all |
| By: | Dietrich Earnhart (University of Kansas); Sarah Jacobson (Williams College); Yusuke Kuwayama (Resources for the Future); Richard T. Woodward (Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of firm and regulator behavior to examine theoretically the use and consequences of discretionary exemptions (also known as variances, waivers, or exceptions) in environmental regulation. Many environmental protection laws, such as the Clean Water Act, impose limits on harmful activities yet include "safety valve" provisions giving the regulator discretion to grant full or partial exemptions that provide permanent or temporary relief from these limits. This discretion begets flexibility over the stringency of environmental protection laws. Our model places a profit-maximizing discharger of pollution under the purview of a fully informed regulator who may seek to maximize social welfare by imposing limits. We show that when a regulation does not otherwise allow flexibility, an exemption that relaxes the limit for firms with high abatement costs can improve social welfare by reducing the costs of achieving the given level of environmental quality. We further demonstrate that if the effectiveness of abatement technology improves over time, a temporary exemption can increase social welfare by adjusting allowable pollution in response to these dynamic conditions. We also show that if the labor market is sticky, exemptions can benefit workers. Driven by an unequally weighted social welfare function, the regulator may use exemptions to meet redistributive ends. However, these beneficial impacts of exemptions rely on a fully informed and benevolent regulator; otherwise, the discretionary nature of exemptions leaves them open to abuse. A regulator who is captured by industry, focused only on her own jurisdiction or answerable only to a set of elites, can abuse exemptions in ways that reduce social welfare, such as allowing inefficiently high pollution or inducing a cost-ineffective pattern of abatement. |
| Keywords: | variance, exemption, regulation, flexibility, discretion, welfare |
| JEL: | D21 D62 K32 Q52 Q53 Q58 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2019-11&r=all |
| By: | Tiberiu Viorel Popescu (Romanian Academy) |
| Abstract: | The fight against crime aims to prevent the impact on social values. This preventive approach must be based on the principle of legality and should be carried out on the basis of pre-established procedures. At present, criminality has a diverse typology that implies not only a permanent adaptation and diversification of procedures, but also a rigorous definition that must reflect as accurately as possible the hypothesis, disposition and sanction for each type of crime. From a criminological perspective, a series of concepts such as high crime, organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, or trafficking in human beings can easily highlight defective definitions. However, there are a number of concepts and philosophies surrounding these types of crime. We propose a review of how crime is defined in order to assess to what extent the identified operational definitions can or must imperatively be improved. |
| Keywords: | Criminology, law, organized crime, prevention, typology |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:025tp&r=all |
| By: | Tim B.M. Stolper |
| Abstract: | For decades the Swiss banking secrecy has made it a criminal act for banks in Switzerland to reveal information about their customers' identities. As of 2018, Switzerland will exchange banking information on foreign bank customers with the respective home countries on an automatic basis. This event study estimates the abnormal returns in the stock prices of Swiss banks around important milestones toward the automatic exchange of information. There is no evidence of significant or sizeable decreases in the market value of Swiss banks due to the new tax transparency. The minimum detectable e¤ect sizes are moderate and suggest a high statistical power. The null results stand in reasonable contrast to a significant increase in the level of tax compliance among the owners of Swiss bank accounts. |
| Keywords: | automatic exchange of information, banking secrecy, tax evasion |
| JEL: | G21 G28 H26 K34 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2017-10&r=all |
| By: | Jason M. Lindo; Mayra Pineda-Torres |
| Abstract: | Beyond a handful of studies examining early-adopting states in the early 1990s, little is known about the causal effects of mandatory waiting periods for abortion. In this study we evaluate the effects of a Tennessee law enacted in 2015 that requires women to make an additional trip to abortion providers for state-directed counseling at least 48 hours before they can obtain an abortion. Based on our difference-in-differences approach, estimates indicate that the introduction of the mandatory waiting period caused a 62-percent increase in the share of abortions obtained during the second trimester, completely closing the pre-existing gap between Tennessee and the comparison states. Our analysis examining overall abortion rates are suggestive of reductions caused by the waiting period but these estimates are imprecise. To put these estimates into context, our back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that Tennessee's MWP increased the monetary costs of obtaining an abortion by as much as $929 for some women. |
| JEL: | I11 I12 I18 J13 K23 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26228&r=all |
| By: | Dilger, Alexander; Schottmüller-Einwag, Ute |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how corporate governance reporting corresponds to actual conduct regarding severance payment caps for prematurely departing members of companies' executive boards in Germany. For this purpose, we first evaluate the declarations of conformity for all companies listed in the CDAX between 2010 and 2014, which we use to determine conformity and deviation rates, and analyse reasons for deviation. In a further full survey, we assess the compensation amounts of all severance payments made and published by DAX companies to their executive board members who were prematurely terminated, which allows us to compare the respective severance ratio with the cap recommended by the German Corporate Governance Codex (GCGC). We find that more than 20% of companies listed in the CDAX declared deviation in the declaration of conformity, and one-third of all deviations were justified by a rejection of the normative decision of the recommendation. Moreover, in 57% of actual severance cases where DAX companies had previously declared their compliance, the cap was exceeded; yet, none of the companies that had exceeded the cap in a severance case disclosed this in the following declaration of conformity. In the years under review, for the majority of severance cases in companies listed in the DAX, the GCGC's cap did not have any factual binding effect. Finally, in most cases the corporate reports deviated from reality and therefore could not serve as a suitable basis for decisions by the capital market. |
| JEL: | D86 G34 G38 J33 J63 J65 K12 K31 M12 M52 M55 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:umiodp:72019&r=all |
| By: | Popescu Stefan Gabriel (Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University of Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | In most cases, the interest in starting the mediation procedure is given precisely by the existing harm, in cases where the perpetrator provides the injured party with the necessary money to cover the damage or to cover the moral damage suffered by the victim. The lack of interest in mediating the conflict can come from the absence of injury, which is already recovered either during the investigation or at a different time before the mediation. In this situation, where there is no harm to be recovered, mediation is harder to accomplish, but not impossible and material damage can be claimed and offered for the purpose of causing moral damage, thus reaching a settlement. At the same time, the interest in mediation comes mostly from the defendant, from his desire not to go to court, or from the desire to stop the criminal proceedings. According to Art. 23 of the New Criminal Procedure Code of Romania, mediation may intervene “in the criminal proceedings on civil claims, the defendant, the injured party and the civilly liable party, are able to enter into a transaction or mediation agreement, under the conditions laid down by law.†|
| Keywords: | mediation, felony of battery and other violences, procedure, agreement |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:035ps&r=all |
| By: | Silviu-Stefan Petriman (Master at Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University of Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | In the social life, human activity may be performed by one person, but in some other people can contribute to the same activity. If this human activity is characterized by committing an act provided by the Criminal Law, and other persons are contributing to this deed, we are in the presence of participation to the commission of an offense under Criminal Law. In other words, we have a plurality of people who commit a crime stipulated by the criminal law. So who directly commits the deed directly is the author and the others are participants. In order to be in the presence of a criminal participation, it is not enough that other people participate, but the participants need to be animated by a common will, together with the author, to commit the crime provided by the Criminal Law. Another condition is that the crime provided by the Criminal Law has been committed by a larger number of persons than necessary, according to the nature of the act otherwise we will have either a plurality constituted either by natural plurality. The Romanian Criminal Law incriminates this form of plurality of offenders in Title II, Chapter 6, entitled The Author and the Participants. |
| Keywords: | accomplice, author, co-author, criminal participation, instigator |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:041ps&r=all |
| By: | Daniel Schwab (Department of Economics and Accounting, College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | Employment protection legislation (EPL) is designed to promote security for workers by placing restrictions on firing, but it generates unintended consequences. With India as a setting, I argue that EPL shifts jobs from younger to older workers in two ways: by discouraging the hiring of unproven young workers and by preventing the firing of low-productivity workers. The identification strategy is motivated by Rajan and Zingales (1998): I assume that EPL is more binding in those manufacturing sectors where the involuntary separation rate in other countries is high. The data show that older workers are more likely to have formal jobs, and the effect is strongest in high-firing sectors, which indicates EPL shifts jobs from young to old. Additionally, EPL reduces plant-level total productivity (TFP), and this effect is seen only in plants which are large enough to fall within the purview of EPL, which provides a useful placebo test. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, labor security |
| JEL: | J83 J60 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:1906&r=all |
| By: | Thomas Bolli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Johanna Kemper (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the hypothesis that employment protection legislation (EPL) increases the incentives of firms to train their employees. The identification strategy uses a regression discontinuity design (RDD) that exploits exemptions of small firms from EPL. Using firm-level data from Finland and Italy in 2005 and 2010, we do not find empirical evidence that EPL increases the propensity to train or the intensity of firm-provided training. The estimates remain insignificant throughout and mostly have a negative sign. This result is supported in a heterogeneous treatment setting that exploits variation in sector-specific employment volatility. Hence, though the upper bounds of the estimates include economically significant effects, we conclude that EPL has no effect on training of small firms in Finland and Italy. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: Employment Protection, Training, Regression Discontinuity, Difference-in-Discontinuity |
| JEL: | J24 K31 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:17-433&r=all |
| By: | Klaus Gründler; Niklas Potrafke |
| Abstract: | The nexus between corruption and economic growth has been examined for a long time. Many empirical studies measured corruption by the reversed Transparency International’s Perception of Corruption Index (CPI) and ignored that the CPI was not comparable over time. The CPI is comparable over time since the year 2012. We employ new data for 175 countries over the period 2012-2018 and re-examine the nexus between corruption and economic growth. The cumulative long-run effect of corruption on growth is that real per capita GDP decreased by around 17% when the reversed CPI increased by one standard deviation. The effect of corruption on economic growth is especially pronounced in autocracies and transmits to growth by decreasing FDI and increasing inflation. |
| Keywords: | perceived corruption, economic growth, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 H11 K40 O11 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7816&r=all |
| By: | Fortuna Casoria (Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE UMR 5824, F-69130 Ecully, France); Marianna Marino (SKEMA Business School - Université Côte d'Azur, Avenue Willy Brandt, 59777 Euralille, France); Pierpaolo Parrotta (IESEG School of Management, 3 rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille, France; LEM-CNRS 9221; IZA; ROA; NoCeT); Davide Sala (University of Passau, 94030 Passau, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effect of decentralization on innovation at the provincial level in Italy. We exploit quasi-natural experiments associated with three waves of reforms occurred in 1992, 2001 and 2004, to establish 8, 4, and 3 new provinces, respectively. Using a difference-in-difference estimation approach, we find evidence of a significant detrimental effect of (further) decentralization on innovation for Northern and Central Italian provinces. We suggest a potential mechanism that may explain the reduction in innovation associated with the aforementioned reforms. We argue that this finding can be rationalized with the costs imposed by the \mafia transplantation" phenomenon, as we find that the new provinces that were more exposed to \mafiosi in confino" reduced their innovation output more extensively. We perform a number of robustness checks that corroborate our main findings. |
| Keywords: | local government, decentralization, innovation, mafia transplantation, difference-in-difference |
| JEL: | D72 H72 K42 O31 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1923&r=all |
| By: | Florian Scheuer; Joel Slemrod |
| Abstract: | The nexus between corruption and economic growth has been examined for a long time. Many empirical studies measured corruption by the reversed Transparency International’s Perception of Corruption Index (CPI) and ignored that the CPI was not comparable over time. The CPI is comparable over time since the year 2012. We employ new data for 175 countries over the period 2012-2018 and re-examine the nexus between corruption and economic growth. The cumulative long-run effect of corruption on growth is that real per capita GDP decreased by around 17% when the reversed CPI increased by one standard deviation. The effect of corruption on economic growth is especially pronounced in autocracies and transmits to growth by decreasing FDI and increasing inflation. |
| Keywords: | perceived corruption, economic growth, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 H11 K40 O11 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7817&r=all |
| By: | Mariella Gonzales; Gianmarco León-Ciliotta; Luis R. Martínez |
| Abstract: | We combine two natural experiments, multiple empirical strategies and administrative data to study voters' response to marginal changes to the fine for electoral abstention in Peru. A smaller fine leads to a robust decrease in voter turnout. However, the drop in turnout caused by a full fine reduction is less than 20% the size of that caused by an exemption from compulsory voting, indicating the predominance of the non-monetary incentives provided by the mandate to vote. Additionally, almost 90% of the votes generated by a marginally larger fine are blank or invalid, lending support to the hypothesis of rational abstention. Higher demand for information and larger long-run effects following an adjustment to the value of the fine point to the existence of informational frictions that limit adaptation to institutional changes. |
| Keywords: | voter turnout, voter registration, compulsory voting, informational frictions, external validity, Peru |
| JEL: | D72 D78 D83 K42 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1111&r=all |
| By: | Detzer, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This article examines the spread of financialization in Germany before the financial crisis. It provides an up-to date overview on the literature on financialization and reviews which of the phenomena typically associated with financialization have emerged in Germany. In particular, the article aims to clarify how the prevailing institutional structure and its changes had contributed to or had countervailed the spread of financialization and how it had shaped the specific German variant of financialization. For this end, it combines the rich literature on Germany's institutional structure with the more macroeconomic oriented literature on financializaton. With the combination of those different perspectives the article sheds light on the reasons for the spread of financialization and the specific forms it has taken in Germany. |
| Keywords: | Banking,Corporate Governance,Financialization,Financial Sector,Financial Regulation,Varieties of Capitalism |
| JEL: | E44 F40 G20 G30 K22 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1222019&r=all |
| By: | Oana Horhogea (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania) |
| Abstract: | In history, between Law and Religion there existed an important connection because both have their origin in establishing some norms regulating the conduct of man in the society. Thus, if at the beginning, the religious and the legal norms were almost identical, over time these began to differentiate, preserving, however, a latent and permanent connection. In its evolution, law has always represented an assembly of behavioural rules in the social connections, whose main feature is the mandatory feature establish for all its members of a society. By studying religion, we can establish similar rules as the law ones, having as purpose the creation of a manner for preserving peace and understanding between individuals, without family links, rules which had to be complied with by all the participants in a social, economic or religious process. |
| Keywords: | evolution, law, norms, religion, rules |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:043oh&r=all |
| By: | Rossella Marzullo (Mediterranea University, Italy) |
| Abstract: | In mafia families, children are educated in violence, revenge, and gender stereotypes. The research question is: What can be done to guarantee these children the right to education, the right to become citizens, to learn democratic values, the right to be men without killing and women without obeying? The studies carried out have discovered a possible answer in the recent judgment of the Juvenile Court of Reggio Calabria, which has mandated the revocation of parental responsibility in cases in which injury to children is proven. These limitations to parental rights have the purpose of allowing institutions to stop a system of behavior that is harmful to the proper development of the personality of the child and that transmits negative cultural values from father to son. This way can play an important role for democracy in creating the context for progressive social change. Man acquires morality from the environment in which he grows, so it is really dangerous for children growing up in families in which boys are predestined to follow in their father's footsteps and girls are sometimes compelled to marry the sons of other bosses, binding separate clans together through blood relations. So, by removal, it is possible for mafia children to discover new realities and new way of life, by new structure that connects them to the society. Socrates in the Platonic Apology says that laws educate and make better youth generations. |
| Keywords: | Mafia, Education, Law, Cultural contamination, Interdisciplinary |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:dpaper:032rm&r=all |