The Demand for Enforcement.

This paper considers the conditions under which individuals engaged in a collective dilemma will give their support to a formal enforcement mechanism. Formal enforcement, the use of monitoring and sanctions to induce compliance with prescribed standards, has been seen as a solution to problems of free riding in the provision of public goods at least since Hobbes. Many quibble about the marginal e®ectiveness of policing in reducing crime, but few doubt that absent some police presence, the streets would be far more dangerous. Likewise, even those with no desire to be subjected to an IRS audit would grudgingly recognize the enhancement of public goods provision that comes from the existence of a tax enforcement mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]