We study item-pricing laws (which require that each item in a store be individually marked with a price sticker) and examine and quantify their costs and benefits. On the cost side, we argue that item-pricing laws increase the retailers’ costs, forcing them to raise prices. We test this...

Nigeria is going through a difficult political and economic transition after decades of independence.Yet, Nigeria remains a society rich in cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic and political diversity. Today, the average Nigerian struggles hard to make ends meet; sees himself or herself as...

Two central puzzles about social norms are how they are enforced and how they are created or modified. The sanctions for violation of a norm can be categorized as automatic, guilt, shame, informational, bilateral- costly, and multilateral-costly. Problems in creating and enforcing norms are...

In this paper, we investigate the impact of economic incentives on the international supply of big-screen movies. More particularly, we also study the impact of a 1998 increase in the term of copyright on U.S. movie production.

Passage of the Sherman Act in the United States in 1890 set the stage for a century of jurisprudence regarding monopoly, cartels, and oligopoly. Among American statutes that regulate commerce, the Sherman Act is unequaled in its generality. The Act outlawed "every contract, combination or...

This paper examines the empirical relationship between the quality of the Indian judiciary and the economic development of the Indian States and Union Territories. It evaluates this causality by analysing the development of the state-level per capita income and poverty rates. I define the...

In this study we model "close-knit" human relations in order to explain the empirical findings of social scientists that law does not affect behaviors occurring within such relationships. We show that parties face significant strategic obstacles in forming relationships, and suggest how they can...

NIGERIA IS GOING THROUGH A DIFFICULT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSITION AFTER FORTY YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE. YET, NIGERIA REMAINS A SOCIETY RICH IN CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC, RELIGIOUS, ETHNIC AND POLITICAL DIVERSITY. TODAY, THE AVERAGE NIGERIAN STRUGGLES HARD TO MAKE ENDS MEET; SEES HIMSELF OR HERSELF...

Electoral constituencies recognize favorable policy outcomes in high- turnout jurisdictions (Key 1984 [1949]; Hamilton 1993; Fleck 1999). In the present paper, I evaluate whether underlying institutions might provide a finer explanation of this relationship. To do so, I formally examine variation in...

This paper addresses the recent Mexico experience in the opening to competition in networks infrastructure mainly in the telecommunications sector. In spite of deregulation and privatization policies in the recent past, there are threats from regulatory failures which create obstacles in the...