Follow-the-leader? Measuring the internalisation of law

Shaun Larcom, Luca Panzone and Timothy Swanson

No 50-2017, CIES Research Paper series from Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute

Abstract: Expressive law is said to induce compliance with stated principles without a price on non-compliance. We empirically assess this proposition, by attempting to disentangle the impacts of a legal change (a 5p charge on use of plastic bags), on individual choices. We do so by measuring both behaviours and attitudes across the first two months of the legal change, and by comparing the impacts across neighboring jurisdictions both with and without the change. Using mediation analysis, we find that the self-reported change in internal motivation explains only about 10% of the change in behaviour. Interestingly, we find that the scale of the sanction (charge) is both irrelevant (because jurisdictions without sanctions still exhibit changed behaviour) and important (because the size of the sanction signals the reasonableness of the law).

Keywords: Expressive law, internalisation of law; behavioural; signalling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C4 D1 K1 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2017-03-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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