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on Law and Economics |
| By: | Kabir Dasgupta (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University); Christopher Erwin (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University); Alexander Plum (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University) |
| Abstract: | The minimum alcohol purchasing age in New Zealand was lowered from 20 to 18 in December 1999. Focusing on two distinct legislative regimes, we utilize a national-level census of criminal convictions to examine the impact of unrestricted alcohol purchasing rights on alcohol-related crime. Our study reveals that overall trends in alcohol-related crimes are obscured by offences that can only be prosecuted up to a certain age. After removing confounding influences from additional regulations that hold relevance under one legislative regime but not the other, we do not find a statistically meaningful increase in overall measures of alcohol-related crimes at the minimum legal alcohol purchasing age. Our analysis suggests that compared to more commonly analyzed minimum legal drinking age legislation, governmental regulations that allow limited exposure to moderated drinking experiences prior to permitting alcohol purchasing rights might be more effective in mitigating alcohol-induced risky behaviors. |
| Keywords: | minimum legal purchasing age; alcohol-related crime; court charges; youth behavior; regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | C21 I12 I18 K14 K42 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:202012&r=all |
| By: | Jason Chan (Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota); Shu He (Department of Operations and Information Management, School of Business, University of Connecticut); Dandan Qiao (Department of Informations Systems and Analytics, School of Computing, National University of Singapore); Andrew B. Whinston (Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin) |
| Abstract: | Darknet markets have been increasingly used for the transaction of illegal products and services in the last decade. In particular, it is estimated that drugs make up two-thirds of darknet market transactions. The growth of illicit transactions on darknet markets have led enforcement agencies to invest greater proportion of time and efforts to monitor and crack down on criminal activities on the darknet websites. Despite the successes in convicting perpetrators, it is unknown whether these policing efforts are truly effective in deterring future darknet transactions, given that the identities of the transacting parties are very well protected by the markets’ features. To this end, this study attempts to empirically evaluate the susceptibility of darknet markets breaking down upon police arrests of dealers and buyers. Using drug review data from a few major darknet markets, we discovered a deterrence impact – the transactions in the targeted country would decrease on the market where arrests occurred. More interestingly, we find that disclosure of the arrests will influence the transactions of vendors not only from the same country but also those from other countries that did not experience any arrest incidents. As the darkweb techniques have led to a considerable proliferation of online drug trading, we believe that study findings that reveal the nature of these illicit markets will have key policy and theoretical implications to law makers, enforcement agencies, and academicians. |
| Keywords: | darknet; illegal transactions; police enforcement; cybercrime; deterrence effect |
| JEL: | K42 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1908&r=all |
| By: | Kabir Dasgupta (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University); André Diegmann (Halle Institute for Economic Research,Centre for European Economic Research); Tom Kirchmaier (Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School); Alexander Plum (NZ Work Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at AUT University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to challenge the implicitly made assumption in the economics of crime literature that findings are universally applicable across cultures and race. Based on very precise judicial and demographic data from New Zealand we are able to replicate the results of an earlier study by Dustmann and Landersø (2018) across the average of the population. However, when splitting out by ethnicity we can show that the effect is entirely driven by the white part of the population and that there is no effect on the native Maori. The particular effect we are exploiting is the gender of the first-born child on convictions rates. The strong ethnic divide is observed along many dimensions. Our results serve as a caution that research can amplify implicit ethnic and racial bias. |
| Keywords: | Crime Research, Racial Bias |
| JEL: | K42 K49 L38 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:202010&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaounde, Cameroon); Joseph I. Uduji (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria); Elda N. Okolo-Obasi (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria) |
| Abstract: | We investigate persistence and determinants of deaths from conflicts in a sample of 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. First, the findings are contingent on income levels, religious-domination, landlockedness, regional proximity and legal origins. The persistence of deaths in internal conflict is more apparent in coastal, French civil-law and Islam-oriented countries, compared to landlocked, English common law, Christian-oriented countries, respectively. Second, the following factors are generally responsible for driving deaths from internal conflicts: homicides, conflict intensity and conflicts fought. Furthermore, incarcerations have negative effects on internal conflicts. Justifications for the established tendencies and policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | War; Conflicts; Global evidence; Persistence |
| JEL: | H56 L64 K42 P50 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:20/066&r=all |
| By: | Anna Bindler (University of Cologne and University of Gothenburg); Nadine Ketel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Little is known about the costs of crime to victims. We use unique and detailed register data on victimisations and monthly labour market outcomes from the Netherlands and estimate event-study designs to assess short- and long-term effects of criminal victimisation. Across offences, both males and females experience significant decreases in earnings (up to -12.9%) and increases in benefit receipt (up to +6%) after victimisation. The negative labour market responses are lasting (up to four years) and accompanied by shorter-lived responses in health expenditure. Additional analyses suggest that the victimisation is a life-changing event leading to escalation points in victims’ lives. |
| Keywords: | Crime; victimisation; labour market outcomes; event-study design |
| JEL: | K4 J01 J12 I1 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:030&r=all |
| By: | Jorge Padilla (Compass Lexecon); Joe Perkins (Compass Lexecon); Salvatore Piccolo (Università di Bergamo, Compass Lexecon and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | The competitive strategies of 'gatekeeper' platforms are subject to enhanced scrutiny. For instance, Apple and Google are being accused of charging excessive access fees to app providers and privileging their own apps. Some have argued that such allegations make no economic sense when the platform's business model is to sell devices. In this paper, we build a model in which a gatekeeper device-seller facing potentially saturated demand for its device has the incentive and the ability to exclude from the market third-party suppliers of a service that consumers buy via its devices. Foreclosure is more likely if demand growth for the platform's devices is slow or negative, and can harm consumers if the device-seller's services are inferior to those offered by the third parties. |
| Keywords: | Durable Goods, Foreclosure, Gatekeeper Platforms, Self-Preferencing, Vertical Integration. |
| JEL: | D43 K21 L41 L81 |
| Date: | 2020–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:582&r=all |
| By: | Michael Palmer (Economics Discipline, Business School, University of Western Australia); Jenny Williams (Department of Economics, University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of a law protecting the employment rights of disabled people in Cambodia. Similar to studies in high income countries, we find that Cambodia's national disability law did not improve the employment situation of persons with disabilities, and may have worsened it, four years after implementation. The reduction in employment of disabled persons following the laws introduction is larger among employees, females, and in the industrial sector. The most plausible mechanism through which employment is reduced is via lower demand for disabled workers by employers seeking to avoid the cost of workplace accommodations in an environment of monitoring by a non-government organization and where employment quotas for disabled workers are set at non-binding levels. |
| JEL: | I18 J21 K31 C21 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:20-22&r=all |
| By: | Anatoliy Kostruba (Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University); Oleh Hyliaka |
| Abstract: | Civil relations at its core contain regulations for the transfer or circulation of certain material assets, which are determined by belonging to a person and an owner. Each such legal relation is established within the limits of implementation of the legal act. The authors of the article consider the possibility of forming such a fact on the basis of the current model of civil legal relations. It should also be said that the formation of an innovative model of legal relations and their cessation in civil law allows increasing the overall social stability in society. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that for the first time the aspects of the implementation of a legal fact in connection with the methods of stabilisation of civil legal relations through the system of forming an equilibrium model of the contract are shown. Each of the participants in the legal relationship is shown in this model as a participant in the civil turnover and termination of the legal relationship forms the possibility of developing a separate legal field. The authors of the article show that this is primarily facilitated by a system of contractual relations and it can stabilise the occurrence of any negative consequences after the cessation of relations between subjects of law. Practical application of the research is possible in draft concepts of reforming and innovative modelling of civil legal relationships and development strategies. |
| Keywords: | civil law,legal facts,contractual relations,contract,rights and obligations |
| Date: | 2020–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02925390&r=all |
| By: | Danny McGowan (University of Birmingham); Huyen Nguyen (Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), and Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate if lenders price or securitize mortgages to mitigate credit risk. Exploiting exogenous variation in regional credit risk created by differences in foreclosure law along US state borders, we find that financial institutions respond to the law in heterogeneous ways. In the agency market where Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) provide implicit loan guarantees, lenders transfer credit risk using securitization and do not price credit risk into mortgage contracts. In the non-agency market, where there is no such guarantee, lenders increase interest rates as they are unable to shift credit risk to loan purchasers. The results inform the debate about the design of loan guarantees, the common interest rate policy, and show that underpricing regional credit risk leads to an increase in the GSEs’ debt holdings by $79.5 billion per annum, exposing taxpayers to preventable losses in the housingmarket. |
| Keywords: | loan pricing, securitization, credit risk, GSEs |
| JEL: | G21 G28 K11 |
| Date: | 2020–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2020-013&r=all |
| By: | Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina (University of California, Merced); Arenas-Arroyo, Esther (Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Using the 2005-2014 waves of the American Community Survey –a period characterized by the rapid expansion of interior immigration enforcement initiatives across the United States, we evaluate the impact of a tougher policy environment on undocumented immigrants' fertility. We find that a one standard deviation increases in enforcement lowers childbearing among likely undocumented women by 5 percent. The effect emanates from police-based measures linked to increased deportations, which may raise uncertainty about the future of the family unit and its resources. Understanding these impacts is important given the critical contributions of immigrants and their offspring to diversity, the economy and the sustainability of the welfare state. |
| Keywords: | fertility, immigration policy, interior immigration enforcement, undocumented immigrants, unauthorized immigrants, United States |
| JEL: | J13 J15 K37 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13748&r=all |
| By: | Marina Cavalieri (Università di Catania); Massimo Finocchiaro Castro (Università di Reggio Calabria); Calogero Guccio (Università di Catania) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between the presence of organised crime in government institutions and the educational outcomes achieved by primary school students undertaking the INVALSI test in Italy. To this purpose, we employ a contemporary index of mafia institutional infiltration that proxies the (scale of) values that parents transmit to their children and that are likely to impact on their educational achievements. Furthermore, combining contemporary individual-level educational outcomes with historical data on mafia infiltration, we control for endogeneity concerns through an IV strategy. Focusing on the outcomes obtained in the INVALSI tests and controlling for results manipulation, we show that the lowest test performance can be found in the southern regions of Italy, where the presence of organised crime is the highest. We interpret this result as a rational choice of families and students living in provinces affected by the presence of organised crime due to the lower expected returns to investment in education. The results are robust to the use of different measures of organised crime, to the inclusion of different sets of controls, different subsamples and to relaxing the exclusion restriction in the IV strategy. |
| Keywords: | organised crime, mafia-type organisations, education outcomes, investments in education, INVALSI, Italy |
| JEL: | D73 I21 H72 K42 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:97&r=all |
| By: | Todd Honeycutt; Janine Zweig; Megan Hague Angus; Sino Esthappan; Johanna Lacoe; Leah Sakala; Douglas Young |
| Abstract: | This report provides an overview of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s deep-end reform and the findings from the evaluation. It offers a high-level view of the Foundation’s activities related to the reform, the activities sites developed and implemented, and the successes and challenges that the Foundation and sites encountered. |
| Keywords: | Adolescents and Youth , Crime and Justice , Race and Ethnicity, Juvenile justice reform, developmental evaluation |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7ba8e8da86894816a93fa14a8fe76861&r=all |
| By: | Kevin Techer (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon) |
| Abstract: | We consider a class of social cost problems where one polluter interacts with an arbitrary number of potential victims. Agents are supposed to cooperate and negotiate an optimal pollution level together with monetary transfers. We examine multi-choice cooperative games associated with a social cost problem and an assignment (or mapping) of rights. We introduce a class of mappings of rights that takes into account the pollution intensity and we consider three properties on mappings of rights: core compatibility, Kaldor-Hicks core compatibility and no veto power for a victim. We demonstrate that there exist only two families of mappings of rights that satisfy core compatibility. However, no mapping of rights satisfies Kaldor-Hicks core compatibility and no veto power for a victim. |
| Keywords: | Externality,Liability rules,Multi-choice cooperative game,Core |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02939246&r=all |
| By: | Rodrigo Fagundes Cezar (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | When a WTO member country is accused by another of implementing discriminatory trade measures, the affected country can trigger the WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism to evaluate whether there was a breach of multilateral trade rules. This One Pager explores the motives why certain disputes take longer than others to be resolved. |
| Keywords: | World Trade Organization; trade disputes; environmental protection; civil society organisations |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:444&r=all |
| By: | Mehling, M.; Ritz, R. |
| Abstract: | As part of its Green Deal, the European Union is currently preparing a “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism” (CBAM). A CBAM applies carbon pricing to imports with the objective of mitigating concerns about carbon leakage. To reduce complexity, it is likely the EU will rely on “default” values in determining the carbon intensity of imports to which its CBAM will apply. In this paper, we suggest that a CBAM based solely on default intensities runs counter to the economic logic of carbon pricing by distorting the incentives for emissions abatement. Instead we propose a CBAM design with a voluntary “individual adjustment mechanism” (IAM) that allows producers to demonstrate that their actual carbon intensity lies below the default value. We argue that the use of an IAM captures additional economic benefits of carbon pricing—notably providing more efficient abatement incentives—and improves the overall legal prospects of a CBAM being found to comply with international law and WTO rules. We discuss practical considerations around the implementation of an IAM, and illustrate with a short case study on the steel sector. |
| Keywords: | Border carbon adjustment, carbon pricing, Green Deal, international law, international trade |
| JEL: | H23 K33 Q54 |
| Date: | 2020–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2087&r=all |