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Encyclopedia of Law and Economics pp 1–11Cite as

Protective Factors

Abstract

Protective factors help people achieve positive outcomes despite exposure to potentially negative influences (in medicine, good health in spite of smoking cigarettes; in the social sciences, productive adult lives as law-abiding citizens despite adverse conditions during childhood and adolescence). In Law and Economics, the concept, in conjunction with control theories, contributes to a better understanding of why economic actors obey the law and comply with rules despite exposure to material incentives to the contrary. Protective factors can result from external sources (social control) and internal sources (internalized conventional values). They generate nonmaterial benefits in the case of compliance and/or nonmaterial costs in the case of noncompliance. The inclusion of protective factor into regulatory analysis – in combination with the consideration of risk factors that work in the opposite direction – helps to understand why some regulatory regimes work better than others. The concept can be especially useful when it comes to designing regulatory innovation based on a better understanding of why some economic actors obey the law and others don’t.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agribusiness Management, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Karl-Freiherr-von-Fritsch-Str. 4, D-06099, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Norbert Hirschauer

  2. Institute for Criminological Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Sebastian Scheerer

Authors
  1. Norbert Hirschauer
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  2. Sebastian Scheerer
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Correspondence to Norbert Hirschauer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrst. Finanzwissenschaft/ Finanzsoziologie, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany

    Jürgen Backhaus

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Hirschauer, N., Scheerer, S. (2014). Protective Factors. In: Backhaus, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_387-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_387-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Protective Factors
    Published:
    28 July 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_387-3

  2. Protective Factors
    Published:
    24 December 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_387-2

  3. Original

    Protective Factors
    Published:
    29 September 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_387-1

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