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Institutional Adaptability and Economic Development: The Property Rights Revolution in Britain, 1700 to 1830

Richardson, Gary; Bogart, Dan - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2008

Adaptable property-rights institutions, we argue, foster economic development. The British example illustrates this point. Around 1700, Parliament established a forum where rights to land and resources could be reorganized. This venue enabled landholders and communities to take advantage of...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005720679

Estate Acts, 1600 to 1830: A New Source for British History

Bogart, Dan; Richardson, Gary - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2008

A new database demonstrates that between 1600 and 1830, Parliament passed thousands of acts restructuring rights to real and equitable estates. These estate acts enabled individuals and families to sell, mortgage, lease, exchange, and improve land previously bound by landholding and inheritance...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005722975

Property Rights and Parliament in Industrializing Britain

Bogart, Daniel; Richardson, Gary - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2010

During Britain's industrialization, Parliament operated a forum where rights to land and resources could be reorganized. This venue enabled landholders and communities to exploit economic opportunities that could not be accommodated by the inflexible rights regime inherited from the past. In...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008610965

Land Reform and Sex Selection in China

Li, Hongbin; Almond, Douglas; Zhang, Shuang - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013

Following the death of Mao in 1976, abandonment of collective farming lifted millions from poverty and heralded sweeping pro-market policies. How did China's excess in male births respond to rural land reform? In newly-available data from over 1,000 counties, a second child following a daughter...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950798

Incentives and Outcomes: China's Environmental Policy

Deng, Yongheng; Morck, Randall; Wu, Jing; Huang, Jun; … - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013

In generating fast economic growth, China is also generating growing concern about its environmental record. Using 2000-2009 data, we find that, while spending on environmental infrastructure has visible positive environmental impact, city spending is strongly tilted towards transportation...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950924

Federal Institutions and the Democratic Transition: Learning from South Africa

Inman, Robert P.; Rubinfeld, Daniel L. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2008

We present a model of a peaceful transition from autocracy to democracy using federal governance as a constitutional … Africa's transition from white, elite rule under apartheid to a multi-racial democracy. We calibrate our model to the South … preferences and rate of time preference ('impatience') of the new majority during the early years of the new democracy. The future …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005575696

After the Big Bang? Obstacles to the Emergence of the Rule of Law in Post-Communist Societies

Hoff, Karla; Stiglitz, Joseph E. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2002

When Russia launched mass privatization, it was widely believed that it would create a powerful constituency for the rule of law. That didn't happen. We present a dynamic equilibrium model of the political demand for the rule of law and show that beneficiaries of mass privatization may fail to...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005580346

"Loans for Shares" Revisited

Treisman, Daniel - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2010

The "loans for shares" scheme of 1995-6--in which a handful of well-connected businessmen bought stakes in major Russian companies--is widely considered a scandal that slowed subsequent Russian economic growth. Fifteen years later, I reexamine the details of the program. In light of evidence...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008601668

Culture and Institutions

Alesina, Alberto; Giuliano, Paola - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013

A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions. We review work with a theoretical, empirical,...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011098929

The Rise and Decline of General Laws of Capitalism

Acemoglu, Daron; Robinson, James Alan - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014

Thomas Piketty's (2014) book, Capital in the 21st Century, follows in the tradition of the great classical economists, like Marx and Ricardo, in formulating general laws of capitalism to diagnose and predict the dynamics of inequality. We argue that general economic laws are unhelpful as a guide...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011168695