Institutions - the structures of rules and norms governing economic transactions - are widely assigned a central role … in economic development. Yet economic history is still dominated by the belief that institutions arise and survive … because they are economically efficient. This paper shows that alternative explanations of institutions - particularly those …

, the timing and causes of the fairs' decline, and the institutions for securing property rights and enforcing contracts at … mechanisms, but was provided by public institutions. More generally, the success and decline of the Champagne fairs depended …

Guilds are social scientists? favoured historical example of institutions generating a 'social capital? of trust that … even to strangers. This is paralleled by the distinction between a ?differential? trust in institutions that enforce the … rights of certain groups and a ?uniform? trust in impartial institutions that enforce the rights of all. Guilds had the …

country. This paper provides the first evidence that the positive effect of importing good institutions cancels out when the … receiving territories are characterized by cultural traits in conflict with those embedded in the imported institutions. We … French institutions in Protestant areas. Then, using hand-collected data on pre-Napoleonic reigns we show that kingdoms with …

We document that trust in public institutions - and particularly trust in banks, business and government - has declined … institutions. Cross-country comparisons reveal a clear legacy of the Great Recession, and those countries whose unemployment grew … the most suffered the biggest loss in confidence in institutions, particularly in trust in government and the financial …

This paper develops a model of costly firm creation in an economy with weak institutions, costly business environment …