Public Enforcement
Advanced
Efficient Punishment
Punishment designed to reduce the total social cost of crime, enforcement, sanctioning, error, and incapacitation.
Why It Matters
Efficient-punishment analysis distinguishes deterrence from retribution and asks how fines, imprisonment, monitoring, and regulatory sanctions compare institutionally.
Selected Literature
A short list of directly relevant archive entries.
1968
Intermediate
2000
Intermediate
The Economic Theory of Public Enforcement of Law
A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell
Journal of Economic Literature
2004
Advanced
2019
Advanced
Related Cases
2019
Securities Regulation
Lorenzo v. SEC
587 U.S. 71 (2019)
Primary scheme liability for knowingly disseminating false statements authored by another person.
1805
Foundations of Law and Economics
Pierson v. Post
3 Cai. R. 175 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1805)
First possession, capture rules, and the administrability of property rights in wild animals.
1980
Securities Regulation
Aaron v. SEC
446 U.S. 680 (1980)
Which antifraud provisions require the SEC to prove scienter when it seeks an injunction.
1994
Securities Regulation
Central Bank of Denver v. First Interstate Bank of Denver
511 U.S. 164 (1994)
Private aiding-and-abetting liability under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act.