Photo Sophie Harnay

SOPHIE HARNAY

PROFESSEUR(E)

Research interests

  • arrow_right Economie institutionnaliste
  • arrow_right Economie des professions
  • arrow_right Concurrence
  • arrow_right Gouvernance d'entreprise
  • arrow_right Professions réglementées
  • arrow_right Régulations économiques

Research group

    Transitions, Environnement, Énergie, Institutions, Territoires

HAL open science

Contact

2017-34

Obeying vs. resisting unfair laws. A structural analysis of the internalization of collective preferences on redistribution using classification trees and random forests

Sophie Harnay, Élisabeth Tovar

Abstract
In this paper, we study whether individual normative preferences are affected by the knowledge of collective normative preferences. In a questionnaire-experimental framework, we study whether respondents obey, resist or are indifferent to a very unfair but legal distribution of an inheritance between a minimum wage-earner and a millionaire. In addition to regressions, we use classification trees and random forests to provide a full picture of how asymmetric combinations of self-interest and ideological factors may lead to identical individual redistributive preferences and law internalization attitudes. We find that sensitivity to procedural fairness and responsibility cut opinions are good predictors of individual redistributive preferences. We also find that law internalization is associated with the support of core normative values, but not with the support of fairness as procedures. This echoes Cooter’s hypothesis of ‘meta preferences’ triggering an expressive vs. backlash effects of laws. Lastly, we find that, among the law-sensitive, the social ‘losers’ tend to submit to the unfair but legal collective preference while the social ‘winners’ tend to either be indifferent of voice their disagreement.
Mot(s) clé(s)
redistribution, law expressivity, self-interest, ideology, classification trees, random forests.
2011-32

Reputation on a credence good market: an economic analysis of professional self-regulation

Camille Chaserant, Sophie Harnay

Abstract
This article provides a rationalization of (at least partial) professional self-regulation resting on the joint production of individual and collective reputations and its impact on the quality of professional services. It presents a short model that aims to show that (i) a high-quality steady-state exists in a market for a credence goods and that (ii) the likelihood of high quality increases when the market is self-regulated by the profession in comparison to the situation where there is no self-regulation. The law and economics literature usually criticizes self-regulation as a modern form of corporatism; we show that it may help to regulate quality when clients are faced with opportunistic professionals.
Mot(s) clé(s)
professional services, credence goods, self-regulation, individual reputation, collective reputation
2010-9

Déréglementer la profession d’avocat ? Les apories de l’analyse économique

Camille Chaserant, Sophie Harnay

Abstract
In keeping with the wider debate on the liberalisation of regulated professions in Europe, this paper is a critical introduction to the economics of regulation applied to the lawyer’s profession. Resting on traditional public economics and industrial economics literature, this literature prove itself to be dated. Then, it does not bring any innovation from the analyses on the deregulation of traditional goods’ markets and are out of real practical reach. It induces conflicting theoretical proposals that empirical studies do not allow to settle once and for all. Moreover, attention has been fully focalized on the question of either deregulating the profession or maintaining its regulation. This occults the issue on the identity of the regulator: should the profession being self-regulated or not?
Mot(s) clé(s)
regulation, profession, credence goods, asymmetrical information, self-regulation
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