Law & Economics at sixty:Mapping the field with bibliometric and machine learning tools

As the year 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark paper in the Law &amp; Economics (L&amp;E) field by Ronald Coase—The Problem of Social Cost—we provide a systematic bibliometric analysis of the development of this field over the years. We look at the output and input side of knowledge production in the field of L&amp;E. The former consists of the volume of production and thematic coverage of the field. The latter—input—looks at the producers of knowledge, the institutional and country affiliations of authors, and the intellectual structure of the field. Thus, the “who”, the “where” knowledge is produced as is also that of on “whose” shoulders the field stands. We demonstrate that Law &amp; Economics shifted from more theory driven work to empirical and evidence-based contributions. Likewise, we show that the Law &amp; Economics field tends to be dominated by authors affiliated with economics departments, and crucially; however, more impactful research seems to be produced by inter-disciplinary cooperation. The L&amp;E field further resembles the economics domain in terms of co-authorship patterns, number of citations and lengths of papers. Finally, we look at diversity in the field of L&amp;E and show, for instance, that the share of female scholars has been steadily growing for the last two decades.</p

The price of creativity:A conjoint experiment in copyrights

Policymakers around the world are increasingly regulating creators' (copy)rights in their work. This includes economic rights and moral rights. While the former type of rights is recognized and protected in most jurisdictions, the approach to the latter - moral rights - differs. How allocation and protection of copyrights affects creators' choices depends on their preferences. Yet, creators' preferences are almost not researched empirically. This paper uses a conjoint experiment, applied for the first time in this context, on representative samples in the UK (general population and professionals) and the USA (professionals) designed to reveal people's preferences with respect to different rights derived from copyrights laws. We find that moral rights are valued more than economic rights, yet participants were willing to trade this right. Such findings might suggest reconsidering existing regulations in particularly with regards to the question of whether the right of attribution can and should be "traded".</p

Can vaccination intentions against COVID-19 be nudged?

Once vaccines against COVID-19 became available in many countries, a new challenge has emerged - how to increase the number of people who vaccinate? Different policies are being considered and implemented, including behaviourally informed interventions (i.e., nudges). In this study, we have experimentally examined two types of nudges on representative samples of two countries - descriptive social norms (Israel) and saliency of either the death experience from COVID-19 or its symptoms (UK). To increase the legitimacy of nudges, we have also examined the effectiveness of transparent nudges, where the goal of the nudge and the reasons of its implementation (expected effectiveness) were disclosed. We did not find evidence that informing people that the vast majority of their country-people intend to vaccinate enhanced vaccination intentions in Israel. We also did not find evidence that making the death experience from COVID-19, or its hard symptoms, salient enhanced vaccination intentions in the UK. Finally, transparent nudges as well did not change the results. We further provide evidence for the reasons why people choose not to vaccinate, and whether different factors such as gender, belief in conspiracy theories, political ideology, and risk perception, play a role in people's intentions to vaccinate or susceptibility to nudges.</p

A Feminine or Masculine Crisis?:Gender Stereotypes and Leadership During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges for leaders, requiring behavior change and public self-compliance. Stereotypically feminine qualities, such as compassion and a good approach to people, may have helped achieve these goals, rendering the pandemic a “feminine crisis.” The special nature of this crisis, along with media attention on female-led countries successfully managing the pandemic, raises the question of whether female leaders would be perceived as more competent in handling such a crisis. In an experimental study conducted on a representative sample in Poland, we assessed whether female prime minister candidates or candidates with feminine traits had an advantage when their competence in managing a large-scale pandemic was evaluated. Surprisingly, we found that, contrary to national security and economic crises (where male or masculine candidates tend to be advantaged), women or feminine candidates were not perceived as having an advantage in managing a COVID-19 type crisis. Furthermore, conservative participants seemed to perceive male candidates as more competent, even in the pandemic context. Although the differences were small in magnitude, they suggest that even in a potentially “feminine crisis,” women do not fare better than men, while men still fare better in stereotypically male crises.</p

Public perception of terrorism attacks:A conjoint experiment

In democratic societies, governments cannot act in isolation from public opinion. This is especially true regarding terrorism, where public perception is the instrument targeted by terrorists to achieve their political goals. Nevertheless, governments must also be able to resist public pressure and preserve individual rights. All this suggests that researching public perception of terrorist attacks is crucial. We make an important contribution in this direction by measuring the importance the public assigns to various attributes of terrorist attacks. Using novel methodology (conjoint experiment) and survey data from the UK and The Netherlands (N = 6,315), we find that people are concerned with attacks by immigrants (in the Netherlands), and by individuals acting as part of a terror cell, and with jihadist motivation. Furthermore, past experience with specific terrorist tactics drive preference to address such attacks more than others. In both countries people strongly focus on the severity of attacks, and under-weigh probabilities. The terror attack in the Netherlands in 2019 provided an opportunity to examine perception right after an actual attack. Also there we have found that people’s concerns are driven by experience with specific attacks. A better understanding of terrorism perception can inform policymakers about the gap between optimal strategies to combat terrorism and the expectations of the public.</p

Financial market reaction to the end of the right-wing populist government:The case of Poland

While extensive research has examined the impact of populist parties’ electoral victories on financial markets, less is known about the effects of their exit from government. This study addresses this gap by analyzing market response to the democratic transition away from populism in Poland. Leveraging the close competition in Poland's 2023 general elections as a quasi-experimental framework, we use the event study and synthetic control methods to explore the market reaction to the end of the right-wing populist government. In the short term, we demonstrate a market premium associated with the democratic transition from the right-wing populist bloc to the pro-democratic bloc. Our findings from the synthetic control method corroborate these results, further suggesting enduring positive effects on investor welfare in the longer term.</p

Is climate change a valid reason for migration? Evidence from a conjoint experiment

Significant changes in climate that impact livelihoods, physical health, and human security raise the question: Is climate change perceived as a valid criterion for long-term immigration, and if so, by whom and under what circumstances? To address these questions, we conducted a well-powered conjoint experiment with a quota-representative sample of Dutch respondents. Consistent with recent literature, our findings reveal that, in terms of public favorability, climate migrants are perceived more favorably than economic migrants but less favorably than asylum seekers fleeing persecution. Moreover, our results challenge the expectation that political ideology and climate attitudes moderate the favorability toward climate migrants.</p

Fiscal Constitutions: An Empirical Approach

The overarching question of this dissertation is: “why does the public debt grow, and why are fiscal (debt) crises repetitive and so widespread?” A special focus in answering this question is given to a fiscal constitution, which contains a country-specific set of laws, rules and regulations, and guides decision making in the area of fiscal policy. By shaping incentives and limiting arbitrariness, the fiscal constitution determines the course of fiscal policy and fiscal outcomes in the long term. This dissertation does not give, however, an exhaustive response to the overarching question. Instead it asks much narrower questions, which are selected after reviewing and identifying the main weaknesses and gaps in the modern literature on fiscal constitutions

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics

Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has afected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables.publishedVersio