First I show that for wealth-constrained agents who may commit an act twice the optimal sanctions are the offender's entire wealth for the first and zero for the second crime. Then I ask the question whether this decreasing sanction scheme is subgame perfect (time consistent), that is, does a rent-seeking government stick to this sanction scheme after the first crime has occurred. If the benefit and/or the harm from the crime are not too large, this is indeed the case; otherwise, equal sanctions for both crimes are optimal. (JEL D82, K47, K42) Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
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Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal Economic Inquiry.
Volume (Year): 42 (2004) Issue (Month): 3 (July) Pages: 496-502 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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Find related papers by JEL classification: D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
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