Law and Norms: Empirical Evidence

Tom Lane () and Daniele Nosenzo

No 2020-03, LISER Working Paper Series from Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

Abstract: A large theoretical literature argues laws exert a causal effect on norms. This paper is the first to provide a clean empirical test of the proposition. Using an incentivized vignette experiment, we directly measure social normsrelating to actions subject to legal thresholds. Results from three samples with around 800 subjects drawn from universities in the UK and China, and the UK general population, show laws often, but not always, influence norms. The strength of the effect varies across different scenarios, with some evidence that it is more powerful when lawbreaking is more likely to be intentional and accurately measurable.

Keywords: social Norms; Law; Expressive Function of Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 K00 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 124 pages
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-exp
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://liser.elsevierpure.com/fr/publications/law-and-norms-empirical-evidence (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Law and Norms: Empirical Evidence (2023)
Working Paper: Law and Norms: Empirical Evidence (2021)
Working Paper: Law and Norms: Empirical Evidence (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irs:cepswp:2020-03

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LISER Working Paper Series from Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, G.-D. Luxembourg. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Library and Documentation ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).