I study the capacity of business associations - private, formal, noncommercial organizations designed to promote the common business interests of their members - to support contract enforcement and collective action. Inspired by recent empirical literature, my theoretical framework connects the...

Without effective developing country participation in climate mitigation it will be impossible to meet global concentration and climate change targets. However, developing countries are unwilling and, in many cases, unable to bear the mitigation cost alone. They need huge transfers of resources...

Since 1979 more than 45 cities nationwide, as well as a handful of states, have passed policies making their cities or states "sanctuaries" for undocumented immigrants. While these policies do differ from one another in some cases, they all share a commitment to limiting, or expressly...

Every spring, the federal government appears to deliver an abundance of announcements that describe criminal convictions and civil injunctions involving taxpayers who have been accused of committing tax fraud. Commentators have occasionally suggested that the government announces a large number...

The Second Circuit's decision in favor of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), in Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, found that deference was due the federal agency's interpretation of one of its regulations, which provided for the OCC's exclusive visitorial power over national...

The Ontario government has recently made changes to provincial securities law that are aimed at more e/effective enforcement. For example, statutory civil remedies are now available to investors in actions involving misrepresentation or inadequate disclosure in the secondary market. A broader...

Legal enforcement of contracts is expensive and therefore parties will typically negotiate to avoid these costs. However, if negotiation takes place under asymmetric information, enforcement will occur in some states. We study a simple principal-agent model with risk neutrality and limited...

This paper was prepared for the Government of Canada, Federal Labour Standards Review. The paper first reviews the strength and limitations of command and control in light of the findings of current regulatory theory.Second it reviews employment standards enforcement practices in Canadian...