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Transport infrastructure investment increased substantially in Britain between the seventeenth and eighteenth century. This paper argues that the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 contributed to transportation investment by reducing uncertainty about the security of improvement rights. It shows...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10004977002
to initiate adequate investment incentives. Using a two-equation estimation approach, a direct competition effect (more … service competition increases the supply of infrastructure) can be disentangled from an indirect effect (more service … competition increases the demand for infrastructure quality and, as a consequence, increases the supply of infrastructure). While …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008701353
Our purpose here is to challenge the big-bang approach to economic history in which some alleged institutional imposition - a deus machine - is claimed to launch a series of new economic behaviors. This so-called prime mover is then carried forward by the inexorable forces of path dependency to...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010368515
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...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010264182
Conventional wisdom on English development confers iconic status on the clause of the Act of Settlement (1701) that mandated secure tenure for judges. Because the Act's effect on tenure was partial, the effect of tenure on judicial decisions can be identified. The paper estimates how the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012910076
We study the effect of changes in land tenure, launched by the 1906 Stolypin reform, on agricultural productivity in late Imperial Russia. The reform allowed peasants to obtain land titles and consolidate separated land strips into single allotments. Our estimations suggest that the net effect...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012938198
Before 1804, France was strictly divided in terms of legal regimes: a part was under Roman civil law while the majority of the territory was under customary laws which, as with common law, gave more flexibility to judges and fewer rights to the state. This dichotomy offers the unique opportunity...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012938206
What is the relationship between state capacity, national identity, and economic development? This paper argues that increases in state capacity can lower the collective action costs associated with political and economic exchange by encouraging the formation of a common identity. This...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013024544
I analyze structure and function in the network design of historical regimes of China and Western Europe to build a theory for the development of societies and states from endogenous mechanisms of social change. I show how their respective network structures evolved independently but share a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013225069
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...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013316895