Welfare v. Consent: On the Optimal Penalty for Harassment

Ratul Das Chaudhury, Birendra Rai, Liang Wang and Dyuti Banerjee

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Abstract: The economic approach to determine optimal legal policies involves maximizing a social welfare function. We propose an alternative: a consent-approach that seeks to promote consensual interactions and deter non-consensual interactions. The consent-approach does not rest upon inter-personal utility comparisons or value judgments about preferences. It does not require any additional information relative to the welfare-approach. We highlight the contrast between the welfare-approach and the consent-approach using a stylized model inspired by seminal cases of harassment and the #MeToo movement. The social welfare maximizing penalty for harassment in our model can be zero under the welfare-approach but not under the consent-approach.

Date: 2021-02, Revised 2023-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-upt
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