Institutional path dependence in European short-term rental regulation
研究了德国、波兰、意大利和西班牙的法律体系及法律学者对短租住宿的监管反应，发现制度锁定现象：法律系统和专家都依赖传统财产/租赁和竞争框架，强化了路径依赖。
This article investigates how legal systems and legal experts across Europe respond to short-term rental accommodation (STRA), focusing on enforcement and authority allocation. It combines a comparative legal analysis of Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain with an experimental expert survey of approximately 180 legal scholars, embedding a strategic–interaction game that varies regulatory and market conditions. Findings reveal institutional lock-in: both legal systems as a whole and legal experts as individuals rely on traditional property/tenancy and competition frames, reinforcing path dependence. Experts also tend to overestimate compliance, even when fines are low and easily absorbed, underestimating the likelihood of strategic non-compliance.