Perceived Procedural Fairness and Compliance (Kolber)

For those interested in "empirical desert" (see, e.g., here and here), there's a new study on SSRN that is pertinent to the subject, yet likely to slip through the radar of many criminal law scholars. Here is the abstract:

"Does Procedural Fairness Improve Compliance with Regulations? Evidence from Financial Intermediaries"

JUAN P. MENDOZA, VU University Amsterdam - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
HENRI C. DEKKER, VU University Amsterdam - Department of Accounting
J. WIELHOUWER, VU University Amsterdam
Financial intermediaries are facing stricter regulations. However, little is known about the factors that affect their compliance behavior in practice. Based on a unique dataset provided by the Authority for the Financial Markets in The Netherlands, we examine how non-compliance (i.e., number of law violations) relates to financial intermediaries’ perceptions of procedural fairness, as indicated by the extent to which regulation is perceived as overly extensive, fast-changing, and obstructive. Our results support the idea that perceived procedural fairness motivates firms to acquire knowledge of new regulations, which in turn enables them to achieve higher levels of compliance.  

-AJK