evidence on punishment preferences, in which subjects reveal a heterogeneous preference for punishing wrongdoers, our model … identifies circumstances in which “punitive” individuals (with stronger-than-average punishment preferences) will self …-select into law enforcement jobs that offer the opportunity to punish (or facilitate the punishment of) wrongdoers. Such “punitive …

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 …. The exogenous removal of the norm consensus opportunity reduces the efficiency of peer punishment and renders centralized …

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 …

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 …

This paper studies whether people can avoid punishment by remaining willfully ignorant about possible negative …