Do Administrative Deficits Cause Noncompliance with International Law? Causal Evidence from the European Union
What are the causes of noncompliance with international law? A rich scholarship argues that limitations in administrative capacity are one of these causes. We provide the first quantitative causal evidence of this relationship. Employing a dataset of infringement cases the European Commission launched against member states and leveraging member state qualification in the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euros as an exogenous source of variation in their administrative capacity, we use a difference-in-differences design to provide evidence that administrative deficits cause a substantial delay in Commission infringement proceedings. We conclude by discussing how international organizations can address this noncompliance problem.