Review of Law and Economics

Trust, Overinclusive Rules, and Selective Compliance

Journal Article
Reference
Berggren, Niclas (2026). “Trust, Overinclusive Rules, and Selective Compliance”. Review of Law and Economics 22(1). doi.org/10.1515/rle-2025-0086

Author
Niclas Berggren

Higher social trust weakens rule-following norms, letting civic types selectively violate overinclusive rules in harmless cases while obeying when violations cause harm. This generates flexible enforcement regimes with tolerated noncompliance. A dynamic extension endogenizes trust, yielding multiple steady states across legal cultures.