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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Can High Prices Ensure Product Quality When Buyers Do Not Know The Sellers' Cost?, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, Timothy Perri
Can High Prices Ensure Product Quality When Buyers Do Not Know The Sellers' Cost?, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, Timothy Perri
Eric Bennett Rasmusen
The Klein-Leffler (1981) model of product quality does not explain why high-quality firms would dissipate the rents they earn from quality- assuring price premia, and it relies on consumers knowing the cost functions of firms. In the present paper, consumers do not know any firm's cost of producing quality goods, so high- quality firms must engage in conspicuous spending to demonstrate they earn a profitable mark-up over cost. Complete rent dissipation occurs only when high and low cost firms have the same cost of producing low quality.
Why Are Japanese Judges So Conservative In Politically Charged Cases?, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer
Why Are Japanese Judges So Conservative In Politically Charged Cases?, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer
Eric Bennett Rasmusen
In politically charged cases, Japanese judges routinely implement the policy preferences of the long- time ruling Liberal Democratic Party (the LDP). That Supreme Court justices defer to the LDP simply reflects the fact that they are appointed by the LDP at very a senior level. That lower court judges defer reflects -- we hypothesize that judges who defer on sensitive political questions do better in their careers. To test this, measure the quality of the assignments that some 400 judges received after deciding various categories of cases. To test the effect of a judge's decision on his job assignments, we …
Why Is The Japanese Conviction Rate So High?, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer
Why Is The Japanese Conviction Rate So High?, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer
Eric Bennett Rasmusen
Conviction rates are high in Japan. Why? We suggest it is because Japanese prosecutors are understaffed. If they can afford to bring only their strongest cases, judges see only the most obviously guilty defendants, and high conviction rates would then follow. Crucially, however, Japanese judges face biased incentives. A judge who acquits a defendant runs significant risks of hurting his career and earns scant hope of positive payoffs. Using data on the careers and published opinions of 321 Japanese judges (all judges who published an opinion on a criminal case in 1976 or 1979), we find skewed incentives to convict. …