We investigate the causal effect of the asymmetric criminalization of prostitution on sex tourism. We exploit legal reforms in five countries that switched from systems where prostitution was legal (Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Canada), or where only buying sex was legal (France), to the "Nordic...

The post-9/11 intensified attention to the financing of terrorism has often focused on the interaction with the activities of charities. Their vulnerabilities have been most underlined by the Financial Action Task Force. The resultant qualitative prominence given to anti-terrorism financing...

Mandatory restrictions in employment law, designed to promote the welfare of workers, are debated fiercely. Proponents argue that they protect workers. Opponents believe that they spawn inefficiency and harm workers. Yet all agree that their welfare implications depend on their degree of...

This study investigates the efficiency of the suspicious transaction reporting (STR) activity to a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as a means to deter money laundering (ML). Baseline and two-province theoretical models are used to frame the empirical analysis. The latter examines the...

On November 14, 2013, Professor Dervan was called to testify before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary Over-Criminalization Task Force. Available here is his written testimony. In his written testimony, Professor Dervan examines the phenomenon of...

It was Robert Nozick who, distinguishing the classical Liberal ‘night-watchman state' which protected citizens against violence and enforced contracts on their behalf, conjured instead the ‘ultraminimal state' in which the task of the state is confined to the monopolisation of violence...

This Essay proposes a conceptual framework for the regulation of transactions involving cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies offer tremendous opportunities for innovation and development but are also uniquely suited to facilitate illicit behavior. The regulatory framework suggested herein is...

“Control fraud” is the leading cause of bank failures and financial crises. In “control fraud” the persons controlling a seemingly legitimate entity use it as a weapon to defraud. This essay analyzes the role of regulators in two epidemics of control fraud: the savings & loan debacle of...

This article analyzes how law enforcers (with particular emphasis on securities regulators) should allocate their limited resources among multiple targets, as well as how they are likely to allocate these resources. It modifies existing models in one significant way: it considers the effect of...

This paper analyzes how fake news may have an effect on individual decisionmaking in the political sphere. To this end, arguments from the standard model of voter behaviour with full rationality are discussed as well as arguments from Behavioural Political Economy, which incorporates systematic...