IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/32913.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effective Regulation and Firm Compliance: The Case of German Privacy Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Jacopo Gambato
  • Bernhard Ganglmair
  • Julia K. Krämer

Abstract

This chapter explores the interaction between the enforcement of and compliance with difficult-to-enforce rules in the context of data regulation. We focus on the effect of the introduction of the GDPR and its transparency principle on the readability of privacy policies for a large sample of German firms. Germany has a system of state-level data protection authorities. These data regulators enforce the same rules but face diverse funding situations, allowing for an ideal setting to study the role of a regulator's capacity in firms' compliance decisions. We find that while, on average, the GDPR lead to less readable policies, firms active in industries that have in the past received more regulatory scrutiny and those active in jurisdictions of better-funded data regulators exhibit a stronger compliance with the GDPR's readability requirement. These results exemplify a more general interaction between regulators' enforcement activity and firms' regulatory compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacopo Gambato & Bernhard Ganglmair & Julia K. Krämer, 2024. "Effective Regulation and Firm Compliance: The Case of German Privacy Policies," NBER Working Papers 32913, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32913
    Note: IO LE PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w32913.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ganglmair, Bernhard & Krämer, Julia & Gambato, Jacopo, 2024. "Regulatory compliance with limited enforceability: Evidence from privacy policies," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-012, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Christian Peukert & Stefan Bechtold & Michail Batikas & Tobias Kretschmer, 2022. "Regulatory Spillovers and Data Governance: Evidence from the GDPR," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 746-768, July.
    3. Laffont,Jean-Jacques, 2005. "Regulation and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521840187, September.
    4. Bocong Yuan & Jiannan Li, 2019. "The Policy Effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the Digital Public Health Sector in the European Union: An Empirical Investigation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-15, March.
    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. Elisabetta Iossa & David Martimort, 2012. "Risk allocation and the costs and benefits of public--private partnerships," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(3), pages 442-474, September.
    2. David Martimort & Aggey Semenov & Lars Stole, 2017. "A Theory of Contracts with Limited Enforcement," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(2), pages 816-852.
    3. Orietta DESSY & Massimo FLORIO, 2004. "Workers' earnings in the UK before and after privatisation: a study of five industries," Departmental Working Papers 2004-13, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    4. Xu, Jiajun & Ru, Xinshun & Song, Pengcheng, 2021. "Can a new model of infrastructure financing mitigate credit rationing in poorly governed countries?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 111-120.
    5. Anupama Sen and Tooraj Jamasb, 2012. "Diversity in Unity: An Empirical Analysis of Electricity Deregulation in Indian States," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    6. Fay, Marianne & Martimort, David & Straub, Stéphane, 2021. "Funding and financing infrastructure: The joint-use of public and private finance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. John Bennett & Matthew D. Rablen, 2021. "Bribery, hold‐up, and bureaucratic structure," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 880-903, July.
    8. Erdogdu, Erkan, 2013. "A cross-country analysis of electricity market reforms: Potential contribution of New Institutional Economics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 239-251.
    9. Thomas S. Ulen, 2011. "The Uneasy Case for Competition Law and Regulation as Decisive Factors in Development: Some Lessons for China," Chapters, in: Michael Faure & Xinzhu Zhang (ed.), Competition Policy and Regulation, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Recuero Virto, Laura & Gasmi, Farid & Noumba Um, Paul, 2009. "The role of institutional design in the conduct of infrastructure industries reforms - An illustration through telecommunications in developing countries," MPRA Paper 12881, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Iossa, Elisabetta & Martimort, David, 2016. "Corruption in PPPs, incentives and contract incompleteness," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 85-100.
    12. Manthos D. Delis & Iftekhar Hasan & Pantelis Kazakis, 2014. "Bank Regulations and Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(5), pages 1811-1846.
    13. Mert Demirer & Diego Jimenez-Hernandez & Dean Li & Sida Peng, 2024. "Data, Privacy Laws and Firm Production: Evidence from the GDPR," Working Paper Series WP 2024-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    14. Elisa BORGHI & Chiara DEL BO & Massimo FLORIO, 2010. "The theory of public enterprise, social welfare and planning: a note," Departmental Working Papers 2010-20, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    15. Christopher Hansman & Jonas Hjort & Gianmarco León, 2015. "Firms' Response and Unintended Health Consequences of Industrial Regulations," Working Papers 809, Barcelona School of Economics.
    16. Santiago Burone & Martin Leites, 2021. "Self-centered and non-self-centered inequality aversion matter: Evidence from Uruguay based on an experimental survey," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(2), pages 265-291, June.
    17. Aurazo Jose & Vasquez Jose, 2019. "Merchant Card Acceptance: An Extension of the Tourist Test for Developing Countries," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 109-139, June.
    18. Yaseen GHULAM, 2018. "The Impact Of Reforms And Privatization On Firms’ Conduct In The Presence Of Interconnected Conglomerates And Weak And Inefficient Regulatory Institutions," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(4), pages 599-622, December.
    19. Guy Meunier & Ingmar Schumacher, 2020. "The importance of considering optimal government policy when social norms matter for the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 630-655, June.
    20. Athias, Laure & Nuñez, Antonio, 2008. "Winner's curse in toll road concessions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 172-174, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:32913. 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: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.