We use the history of private limited liability companies (PLLCs) to challenge two pervasive assumptions in the literature: (1) Anglo-American legal institutions were better for economic development than continental Europe’s civil-law institutions; and (2) the corporation was the superior form...

This article challenges the idea that the corporation is a globally superior form of business organization and that the Anglo-American common-law is more conducive to economic development than the code-based legal systems characteristic of continental Europe. Although the corporation had...

This article examines the origins of the American limited partnership, first enacted by New York in 1822, in the Old Regime French societe en commandite simple. It argues that, while largely identical, these business organizations served very different social and cultural functions. The societe...