This study examines the relationship between gender-related aid and legal frameworks governing women's economic opportunities. Using data from 116 countries (2009-2022), we analyze how significant (SGRA) and principal (PGRA) gender-related aid influence the Women, Business, and Law (WBL) Index,...

Adequate budgeting of the judiciary is critical for the effective delivery of justice. This brief presents trends in judicial budgets. Courts account for less than 2 percent of total government expenditure on average, with significant portions dedicated to fixed costs such as salaries, thereby...

This note explores the use of technology to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of judicial service delivery. It examines how technological solutions can support streamlining internal court processes, facilitate access for court users, and support the quality of judicial...

Small claims courts and procedures play an important role in enhancing the efficiency and accessibility of the justice system. When well-designed, they can significantly streamline judicial processes, reduce the burden on courts, and increase access to justice for individuals and small...

This chapter, forthcoming in the Research Handbook on Law and Time (F. Fagan & S. Levmore eds., Edward Elgar 2024), offers a contribution to the economics of legal transition. It argues that the lawmaker should mitigate the burden generated by the risk of legal change by avoiding "extreme"...

Kartellschadensersatzzahlungen erfordern eine angemessene Verzinsung, da der entstandene Schaden häufig lange zurückliegt. In Deutschland wird die Verzinsung dieser Ansprüche durch § 33a GWB in Verbindung mit §§ 288 und 289 BGB geregelt, wobei ein fixer Aufschlag von 5 % auf den...

Inheritance law is a family-oriented legal institution shaping how families transfer wealth across generations. This review discusses the main components of inheritance law (inheritance tax rate, and testamentary freedom), and how they impact business families. It also explores common strategies...

This paper studies a recent legal reform in Germany, which aims to lower commission rates of real estate agents by raising the cost salience of sellers. I find that the reform has backfired and real estate agents have exploited the transition to increase their commission rates. The findings...

This chapter systemically traces the notable rise of legal reforms for the adoption of anti-corruption corporate compliance programs in Latin America. Since 2009, nine countries in the region, including the seven largest economies, have embraced this strategy as part of their anti-corruption...

Felix Rützel’s assessment of algorithmic price discrimination focuses on the connections between various areas of law. By outlining the existing legal frameworks for each and pinpointing where changes need to be made in order to react to this pricing strategy, the author’s analysis offers...

The modernization drive of the late Ottoman Empire is typically attributed to visionary officials and pressures they faced from foreign powers. This paper ascribes a fundamental role to prior shifts in wealth toward non-Muslims and away from conservative groups, including Muslim clerics. These...

We show that judicial independence can reduce local protectionism and foster cross-regional economic integration. We exploit a judicial independence reform in China with staggered roll-out since 2014. The reform removed local governments’ control over local courts’ financial and personnel...

Comparative legal research is of greatest practical value to policymakers, and to the bench and bar, when grounded in the systematic collection and analysis of empirical data. By applying empirical research methods to comparative law questions, legal scholars can meaningfully contribute to...

Housing is one of the areas where it may be most critical for poor people to have access to legal representation in civil cases. We use the roll-out of New York City’s Universal Access to Counsel program (UA) to assess the effects of legal representation on tenant outcomes, using detailed...

We document the effects that three different types of events: i) corporate scandals ii) hard legal reforms, and iii) soft legal reforms, have had on the Chilean market for corporate directors between 2008 and 2019. Like the effects generated by the sequence Enron-Worldcom-SOX, we find that the...

Due to a legal challenge, there was a staggered introduction of fast track debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) across the states of India in the 1990s. Exploiting this plausibly exogenous variation in the efficiency of debt contract enforcement and using detailed information on product lines produced...

How does the publication of patents affect innovation? We answer this question by exploiting a large-scale natural experiment--the passage of the American Inventor's Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA)--that accelerated the public disclosure of most U.S. patents by two years. We obtain causal...

In February 2022, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action presented its Competition Policy Agenda until 2025. Among other things, it aims to strengthen cartel prosecution by providing better protection for leniency witnesses and reforming the Cartel Damages Directive....

The Supreme Court held in Mitchell v. Forsyth that defendants have a right to immediately appeal from the denial of immunity. This right to appeal alone is enough to halt any progress in civil-rights litigation and add complexity to a case, and defendants can use these appeals to to wear down...

As the nation’s principal law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ) plays a unique role in protecting U.S. democracy. Even though the attorney general is appointed by the president and serves at the president’s pleasure, a recognition of the comparable independence of the DOJ...

We examine the impact of criminalizing sex work, exploiting an event in which local officials unexpectedly criminalized sex work in one district in East Java, Indonesia, but not in neighboring districts. We collect data from female sex workers and their clients before and after the change. We...

This paper studies the effects of changes in states’ scope of practice laws (SOP) for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) on individual labor supply decisions. Restrictive SOP impose costs and other barriers to practice that may affect these decisions. Using survey data on APRNs, we...

Social norms can mitigate the effectiveness of formal institutions, in particular the way legal reforms may affect women's autonomy. We examine this question in the context of ethnic variation in traditional post-marital cohabitation, i.e. matrilocality versus patrilocality. We use...

Housing is one of the areas where it may be most critical for poor people to have access to legal representation in civil cases. We study the roll-out of New York City's Universal Access to Counsel program (UA), using detailed address-level housing court data from 2016 to 2019. The program,...

Countries are not equally developed in large part because most countries face sets of property rights that do not foster growth despite the aggregate gains that would result from changing property rights. The difference in rents to society between the extant set of property rights and some...

Using the policy of unified management of local courts below the province, we found that the independence of the judiciary can significantly improve the success rate of firms in administrative litigation cases, promoting the corporate fixed assets investment rate. The positive influence of...