We estimate a structural model of borrowing and lending in the illegal money lending market using a unique panel survey of 1,090 borrowers taking out 11,032 loans from loan sharks. We use the model to evaluate the welfare effects of alternative law enforcement strategies. We find that a large...

In case of digital goods such like music, intellectual property rights are typically not exerted by the creators (artists) but by intermediaries. Their profits, and therefore also the income of the artists, are endangered by copyright infringements (piracy). It is well known from static welfare...

We ask whether regulation can usefully supplement litigation in a model of optimal social control of harmful externalities. In our model, firms choose activity levels in addition to precautions. In contrast to the usual analysis, we assume that social returns to activity are higher than private...

Many studies find that public law enforcers have self-interested reasons to maximize financial recoveries. We analyze a principal-agent model where a social-welfare-maximizing government needs to motivate self-interested law enforcers to exert enforcement effort to detect offending firms,...

This article investigates the purpose and workings of EU competition law and policy: how does the protection of competition promote welfare? It scrutinizes the claim that sustainable consumption and production (SCP) requires flexible rather than strict enforcement of Article 101 TFEU. Flexible...

This paper develops a dynamic life-cycle equilibrium model of crime with hetero-geneous agents and human capital accumulation. Agents decide at each point in time whether to commit crimes by comparing potential gains from crime to the expected cost of punishment (determined from the probability...