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The Economic Theory of Public Enforcement of Law

A. Mitchell Polinsky¹; Steven Shavell²

¹ Stanford Law School and National Bureau of Economic Research. · ² Harvard Law School and National Bureau of Economic Research ,

This article surveys the theory of the public enforcement of law—the use of public agents (inspectors, tax auditors, police, prosecutors) to detect and to sanction violators of legal rules. We first present the basic elements of the theory, focusing on the probability of imposition of sanctions, the magnitude and form of sanctions, and the rule of liability. We then examine a variety of extensions of the central theory, concerning accidental harms, costs of imposing fines, errors, general enforcement, marginal deterrence, the principal-agent relationship, settlements, self-reporting, repeat offenders, imperfect knowledge about the probability and magnitude of fines, and incapacitation.

DOI

10.1257/jel.38.1.45

Volume

38 (1)

Pages

45-76

Language

en

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BibTeX

Sources

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