"When the mortality rate is high, repeated interaction alone may not sustain cooperation, and religion may play an important role in shaping economic institutions. This insight explains why during the fourteenth century, when plagues decimated populations and the church promoted the doctrine of...

"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...

"How persistent are the effects of legal institutions adopted or inherited in the distant past? A substantial literature argues that legal origins have persistent effects that explain clear differences in investor protections and financial development around the world today (La Porta et al,...

"Several studies link modern economic performance to institutions transplanted by European colonizers and here we extend this line of research to Asia. Japan imposed its system of well-defined property rights in land on some of its Asian colonies, including Korea, Taiwan and Palau. In 1939 Japan...

1. The Concept of Power -- 2. Political Power -- 3. Economic Power -- 4. The Separation of Economic from Political Power -- 5. Power in Pre-Agricultural Societies -- 6. Power in Agrarian and Feudal Societies -- 7. Institutions That Support Commerce and Industry -- 8. Power in Commercial and...

1 The culture and institutions of Japan -- 2 Mental models and the cost of institutions -- 3 The process of long-term growth before the Meiji Restoration -- 4 Religious changes in Kamakura-era Japan -- 5 Institutions and trust level during the Muromachi era -- 6 Cultural foundations of Tokugawa...