The Internet has had profound effects on society, both positive and negative. In this paper we examine the effect of the Internet on a negative spillover: hate crime. In order to better understand the link, we study the extent to which broadband availability affects racial hatecrimes in the US...

We investigate whether the inclusion of social rights in political constitutions affects social performance. More specifically, we analyze whether including the right to education in the constitution has been related to better "educational outcomes." We rely on data for 61 countries that...

It is well known that exposure to lead has numerous adverse effects on behavior and development. Using data on two cohorts of children from the NLSY, this paper investigates the effect of early childhood lead exposure on behavior problems from childhood through early adulthood. I find large...

The evolution of the legislative framework involves a permanent improvement of the previous measurements establishing, at the same time, certain “precise targets” upon which steps will be taken in conformity with the governing programs and strategies drawn up at the national level. In...

This paper analyses the dynamics of personal insolvencies in Germany and the UK, focusing on the recent recession. These countries are particularly interesting as they are both member countries of the European Union, yet have completely different approaches to deal with overindebted individuals....

Ziel der explorativen Untersuchung war es, mögliche Probleme in der Verfolgung von Verstößen gegen Tierschutzgesetze im Nutztierbereich zu identifizieren und Verbesserungsvorschläge zu sammeln. Der Ausgangspunkt für die Studie war die Aussage von Amtstierärzten, dass eindeutige Verstöße...

Although an overwhelming proportion of all legal disputes end in settlement, the determinants of the timing of settlement remain empirically underexplored. We draw on a novel dataset on the duration of commercial disputes in Slovenia to study how the timing of settlement is shaped by the stages...

Business groups in emerging markets perform better than unaffiliated firms. One explanation is that business groups substitute some functions of missing institutions, for example, enforcing contracts. We investigate this by setting up a model where firms within the business group are connected...