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58 Eur. J.L. & Econ. 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/eurjlwec58 and id is 1 raw text is: European Journal of Law and Economics (2024) 58:1-19 https:Ildoi.org/l 0.1007/si10657-024-09812-0 Punishment menus and their deterrent effects: an exploratory analysis Gilles Grolleaul • Murat C. Mungan2 - Naoufel Mzoughi3 Accepted: 12 August 2024 / Published online: 27 August 2024 ©The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024 Abstract Conventional wisdom suggests that allowing offenders to choose alternative pun- ishments to a previously existing punishment cannot enhance deterrence, because offenders can simply select the least costly option available. After reviewing the deterrence research literature, we argue that punishment menus may encourage indi- viduals to focus more on how they construe the wrongdoing and view the ethical gravity of their actions. We experimentally test whether people may perceive pun- ishment menus as more deterrent than stand-alone sanctions available within the same menu. Our results suggest that this is possible, and that changes in people's perceptions are often mediated by the mindset (e.g., calculative, ethical) they adopt to evaluate punishment schemes as well as their impressions of the seriousness of the illegal act. Keywords Behavioral economics Calculative mindset Ethical mindset- Economics of crime - Deterrence Punishment menu E Naoufel Mzoughi naoufel.mzoughi@inrae.fr Gilles Grolleau grolda@gmail.com Murat C. Mungan mungan@law.tamu.edu ESSCA School of Management, Lyon, France 2 School of Law, Texas A&M University, Fort Worth, USA 3 INRAE, Ecodeveloppement, Avignon, France eSpringer