Huabing Li

Utilitarian Proportionality

Empirical Evidence from Crimes of Embezzlement and Bribery in China

Best Paper Award for Junior Scholars, AsLEA 2025

Working paper, 2025

Must punishment that fits the crime cost us deterrence? After China softened its harsh sentences for embezzlement and bribery in 2016, the number of these crimes rose, but the rise came almost entirely from minor offences, and offenders had less reason to escalate to serious ones. Proportionate punishment and deterrence turn out to go together.

The sentence for embezzlement and bribery by the sum involved, before and after the 2016 reform.before 2016after 2016sentencesum involved

Cite

Li, Huabing. 2025. “Utilitarian Proportionality: Empirical Evidence from Crimes of Embezzlement and Bribery in China.” Working paper.

BibTeX
@unpublished{li2025proportionality,
  author = {Li, Huabing},
  title = {{Utilitarian Proportionality: Empirical Evidence from Crimes of Embezzlement and Bribery in China}},
  note = {Working paper},
  year = {2025}
}