Laws and authority

George J. Mailath; Stephen Morris; Andrew Postlewaite

doi:10.1016/j.rie.2016.11.003

Laws and authority

George J. Mailath^*, Stephen Morris, Andrew Postlewaite

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A law prohibiting a particular behavior does not directly change the payoff to an individual should he engage in the prohibited behavior. Rather, any change in the individual׳s payoff, should he engage in the prohibited behavior, is a consequence of changes in other peoples׳ behavior. If laws do not directly change payoffs, they are “cheap talk,” and can only affect behavior because people have coordinated beliefs about the effects of the law. Beginning from this point of view, we provide definitions of authority in a variety of problems, and investigate how and when individuals can have, gain, and lose authority.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	32-42
Number of pages	11
Journal	Research in Economics
Volume	71
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rie.2016.11.003
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2017

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abstract = "A law prohibiting a particular behavior does not directly change the payoff to an individual should he engage in the prohibited behavior. Rather, any change in the individual׳s payoff, should he engage in the prohibited behavior, is a consequence of changes in other peoples׳ behavior. If laws do not directly change payoffs, they are “cheap talk,” and can only affect behavior because people have coordinated beliefs about the effects of the law. Beginning from this point of view, we provide definitions of authority in a variety of problems, and investigate how and when individuals can have, gain, and lose authority.",

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KW - authority

KW - institutions

KW - power

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Laws and authority

Abstract

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