This paper argues that the “Economics of Crime” concentrates too much on punishment as a policy to fight crime, which … is unwise for several reasons. There are important instances in which punishment simply cannot reduce crime. Several … feasible alternatives to punishment exist, such as offering positive incentives or handing out awards for law abiding behavior …

We experimentally study decision-making in a novel dynamic coordination game. The game captures features of a … network has higher payoffs, but the transition is slow and costly. Coordination is required to implement the transition while …

heterogeneous groups. When punishment is not allowed all groups converge towards free-riding. With punishment, contributions … that these differences are not accidentally but enforced by punishment. The enforced contribution norms are related to …

We study how punishment influences conditional cooperation. We ask two questions: 1) how does conditional cooperation … cooperation with punishment which leads to a decrease in conditional cooperation. The power to punish means more responsibility … change if a subject can be punished and 2) how does conditional cooperation change if a subject has the power to punish …

and privileged groups with and without decentralized punishment. We find that compared to normal groups, privileged groups … are relatively ineffective in using costly sanctions to increase everyone's contributions. Punishment is less targeted …

contrast, uncertainty about the catastrophic threshold typically causes coordination to collapse. Whether the probability …

to guide subjects' cooperation and punishment choices, including the virtually complete removal of antisocial punishment … systems exist that avoid these costs and whether other, more centralized, punishment systems are superior and will be … preferred by the people. Here, we show that welfare-enhancing peer sanctioning without much need for costly punishment emerges …