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Optimal Justice in a General Equilibrium Model with Non Observable Individual Productivities

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Author Info
Pierre Lasserre ()
Antoine Soubeyran

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Abstract

In this general equilibrium model, justice and police institutions are treated as a mechanism that induces individuals to extend some desirable productive effort. This determines individual encroachment activities which in turn determine the proportion of aggregate production that fails to be appropriated, and the private incentives to choose productive activities. Since individuals have different productive abilities society would ideally take both equity and efficiency into consideration in the design of its institutions: encroachment is a form of redistribution from the most talented individuals to the least talented ones. We study the stylized properties that should arise when individual productivities are not observable by the system, and when both detection levels and justice accurary are costly instruments.

Nous étudions dans un modèle d'équilibre général le rôle du système judiciaire comme instrument d'allocation des activités de production et de prédation. Les décisions individuelles se prennent compte tenu, à la fois des sentences que l'on peut escompter à la suite d'activités prohibées, et de la mesure dans laquelle, à l'équilibre, les producteurs peuvent s'approprier le fruit de leurs efforts. Comme les capacités productives diffèrent d'une personne à l'autre, il est socialement désirable de prendre en compte des considérations d'équité et d'efficacité dans la conception des institutions : la prédation est une forme de redistribution des plus productifs vers les moins productifs. Nous étudions les faits stylisés qui caractériseraient un tel système lorsque les productivités individuelles ne sont pas observables et que tant le niveau de détection que la précision des décisions de justice sont des caractéristiques coûteuses des institutions.

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Paper provided by CIRANO in its series CIRANO Working Papers with number 99s-37.

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Date of creation: 01 Oct 1999
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Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:99s-37

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Related research
Keywords: Justice institutions incentives crime information observability agency general equilibrium Justice institutions incitations crime information observabilité agence équilibre général

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information

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  1. Kaplow, Louis, 1990. "Optimal Deterrence, Uninformed Individuals, and Acquiring Information about Whether Acts Are Subject to Sanctions," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 93-128, Spring.
  2. Nicolas Marceau & Steeve Mongrain, 1999. "Dissuader le crime," Cahiers de recherche du Département des sciences économiques, UQAM 9902, Université du Québec à Montréal, Département des sciences économiques. [Downloadable!]
  3. de Meza, David & Gould, J R, 1992. "The Social Efficiency of Private Decisions to Enforce Property Rights," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 561-80, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Milgrom, Paul & Shannon, Chris, 1994. "Monotone Comparative Statics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(1), pages 157-80, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Lucian Arye Bebchuk & Louis Kaplow, 1992. "Optimal Sanctions When Individuals are Imperfectly Informed About the Probability of Apprehension," NBER Working Papers 4079, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(114), pages 175-208, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Neary, Hugh M, 1997. "Equilibrium Structure in an Economic Model of Conflict," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 480-94, July.
  8. Polinsky, Mitchell & Shavell, Steven, 1979. "The Optimal Tradeoff between the Probability and Magnitude of Fines," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(5), pages 880-91, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. James Andreoni, 1991. "Reasonable Doubt and the Optimal Magnitude of Fines: Should the Penalty Fit the Crime?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(3), pages 385-395, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Arun S. Malik, 1990. "Avoidance, Screening and Optimum Enforcement," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(3), pages 341-353, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1975. "The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: A Question of Life and Death," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 397-417, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Shavell, Steven, 1991. "Specific versus General Enforcement of Law," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 1088-1108, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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