ABSTRACT
Legal norms can have a direct effect on individual behavior through legal enforcement. However, according to the ‘expressive function of law,’ they can also indirectly affect individual behavior by shaping related social norms. Since evidence for this expressive function is scarce, we consider a new law on corporate due diligence for the protection of human rights and the environment (ie the German Supply Chain Act) and empirically examine its indirect effects on individual sustainable purchasing behavior, as indicated by the willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable socks, where sustainability is ensured by the certification with a label of the Fair Wear Foundation. The empirical analysis is based on data from a pre-registered and incentivized experiment implemented in a representative survey of 1,017 citizens in Germany. Before making purchasing decisions and the elicitation of related personal injunctive and perceived social norms, respondents were randomly assigned to a control group or a treatment group that received information about the German Supply Chain Act. A manipulation check shows that the treatment information has a significantly positive effect on individual knowledge of the objectives of the German Supply Chain Act. However, the treatment information has no significant effect on the WTP for the Fair Wear Foundation label or on related norms. Although a mediation analysis reveals that personal injunctive and perceived social norms are significantly positively correlated with this WTP, we find no evidence of the expressive function of law in the case of the German Supply Chain Act and individual sustainable purchasing behavior.
Gutsche, Gunnar and Engler, Daniel and Gleue, Marvin and Möller, Sophia and Ziegler, Andreas, The expressive function of legal norms: Experimental evidence from the Supply Chain Act in Germany. Posted on SSRN 24 September 2025.
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