In advanced economies interest rates generally vary inversely with the borrower’s socio-economic status, because status tends to depend inversely on default risk. Both of these relationships depend critically on the impartiality of the law. Specifically, they require a lender to be able to sue...

Çaðdaþ dönem öncesi Ortadoðu ekonomisinin Ýslam hukukuna dayanan kilit kurumlarý, demokratik kurumlarýn geliþimini engelledi. Bu konuþma, kritik rol oynayan üç mekanizmayý tanýmlamaktadýr. Kur’an’da belirtilen vergi sistemi yönetim üzerinde kalýcý ve güvenilir...

Do political decentralisation and inter state competition favour innovation and growth? There has long been a lively debate surrounding this question, going back to David Hume and Immanuel Kant. This book is a new attempt to test its veracity. The existing literature tends to assume that the...

A feature shared by certain major revolutions is that they were not anticipated. Here is an explanation, which hinges on the observation that people who come to dislike their government are apt to hide their desire for change as long as the opposition seems weak. Because of this preference...

Public opinion breeds tyranny by forcing individuals to refrain from voicing their genuine thoughts and feelings. The means used to mitigate such tyranny include the separation of governmental powers, the ethic of tolerance, and the secret ballot. Yet neither individually nor collectively do...

Çaðdaþ dönem öncesi Ortadoðu ekonomisinin Ýslam hukukuna dayanan kilit kurumlarý, demokratik kurumlarýn geliþimini engelledi. Bu konuþma, kritik rol oynayan üç mekanizmayý tanýmlamaktadýr. Kur’an’da belirtilen vergi sistemi yönetim üzerinde kalýcý ve güvenilir...

Although a millennium ago the Middle East was not an economic laggard, by the 18th century it exhibited clear signs of economic backwardness. The reason for this transformation is that certain components of the region’s legal infrastructure stagnated as their Western counterparts gave way to...

A civilization constitutes a durable social system of complementary traits. Some of the complementarities of any given civilization are between elements of "material" life and ones commonly treated as integral to "culture." Identifying the mechanisms responsible for a civilization's observed...