The Economics of Shame

The Ukrainian government wants to make public the names of corrupt officials

http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/order/?id=176595

Privat bank makes public some of the names of its debtors

http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/order/?id=175269&ulq=bank%20website

One can wonder whether this is helpful in deterring 'crime', that is to what extent shame is an effective weapon in the fight against crime.

In economics, there is some literature on how peer pressure can help to reduce free-riding in groups. See for example the work by Dora Costa and Matthew Kahn

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8734.html