SITE Seminar | Can sanctions deter illegal financial transactions?

Welcome to the next SITE seminar! On 4 June, Prof. Daniel Berkowitz, from University of Pittsburg, will present his working paper entitled " Can sanctions deter illegal financial transactions?" at SSE and online via Zoom.

Start time: 2024-06-04 at 12:00

End time: 2024-06-04 at 13:00

Time zone: CEST

Location: Room Peter Wallenberg (A550) at SSE and online via Zoom

Working paper title: "Can sanctions deter illegal financial transactions?"

By: Daniel Berkowitz, Guillermo Lezama and Laura Liu

Abstract

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) In the US Department of Treasury penalizes companies for doing business with foreign countries sanctioned by the US government. These civil penalties are generally unanticipated because they are announced only after OFAC has completed its investigation. We document that there were announcement effects for companies that were charged sufficiently large penalties. Moreover, the loss in market value almost always exceeded the size of large penalties suggesting that they could deter other firms from violating US government sanctions. We explore several explanations for why penalty size matters including shareholder morality, salience through the business press, Becker’s crime and punishment theory and managerial competence.

About the speaker

Daniel Berkowitz is a professor at the University of Pittsburg. Click "Expand" down below to learn more.

Daniel Berkowitz works on comparative institutions and development and law and finance. His early work on Russia studied the role of local finances and politics on the evolution of market reforms. He has documented the long run effects transplantation of legal codes and how the quality of legal institutions affects trade flows around the world. His ongoing work on China analyzes state owned enterprises, local government, property laws and anti-corruption reforms. He has an ongoing project on fracking has affected consumer financial well-being.

Daniel and Gerard Roland served for ten years managing co-editors of the Journal of Comparative Economics, which is the leading field journal in comparative institutions. His publications have appeared in good outlets including the European Economic Review, the Journal of Comparative Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Law, Economics and Organizations, the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Public Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics.

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Interested in attending the SITE Seminar at SSE or online via Zoom?

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