IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/nzecpp/v46y2012i1p79-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why the shadow of the law is important for economists

Author

Listed:
  • Stuart Birks

Abstract

The shadow of the law is essentially an umbrella term for the law's possible indirect influence on behaviour. It refers to the way laws can affect people's actions even when there is no direct legal involvement. Often the law is used to ‘send a signal’. This paper presents an economics perspective on this concept. Anassessment is made of the implications in terms of the suitability of the signals given and various responses that may be observed. In summary, the law is a central component of policy. In its implementation signals are given. These may not be clear or suitable for cases in general, and there may be a variety of responses to the same signal. The paper draws attention to an important dimension of policy implementation and its implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Stuart Birks, 2012. "Why the shadow of the law is important for economists," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 79-90, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:nzecpp:v:46:y:2012:i:1:p:79-90
    DOI: 10.1080/00779954.2011.613147
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00779954.2011.613147
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00779954.2011.613147?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric A. Posner & Alan O. Sykes, 2007. "An Economic Analysis of State and Individual Responsibility Under International Law," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 9(1), pages 72-134.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jef Mot & Michael Faure, 2019. "Public authority liability and the cost of disasters," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(4), pages 760-783, October.
    2. Feler Bose & Jeffry A. Jacob, 2018. "Changing Sexual Regulations in the U.S. from 1990 to 2010: Spatial Panel Data Analysis," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 9(1).
    3. Robert J. Dijkstra, 2017. "Is limiting financial supervisory liability a way to prevent defensive conduct? The outcome of a European survey," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 59-81, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:nzecpp:v:46:y:2012:i:1:p:79-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RNZP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.