We study the importance of technology and institutions in determining the size of markets in five different countries … endogeneity in institutional and technological changes are crucial for this result. We also find that a state's institutions … influence the rate of adoption of steam trains, thereby identifying an important indirect effect from institutions on economic …

This paper evaluates the importance of property rights institutions', which protect citizens against expropriation by … the government and powerful elites, and contracting institutions', which enable private contracts between citizens. We … exploit exogenous variation in both types of institutions driven by colonial history, and document strong first …