We argue that societies sometimes choose not to enforce the law to gain “flexibility”. Especially developing countries face a dilemma between discretion and commitment to only partially-contingent rules. Rules are good for incentives, but discretion may be more “flexible”. We embed this...

Benevolent governments lacking commitment ability provide too much insurance, if opportunistic private agents free ride on the government's concern and exert too little effort expecting government assistance. Yet, the costs of implementing the transfer policy work as a commitment device,...

Excess distortions in the welfare state might result from the government lack of ability to commit not to help unlucky agents. Incentive considerations that are crucial in standard insurance in the presence of moral hazard play no role in this case. A benevolent government that sets transfers...