Applying an indirect evolutionary approach with endogenous preference formation, we show that a legal system can induce players to reward trust even if material incentives dictate to exploit trust. By analyzing the crowding out or crowding in of trustworthiness implied by various verdict rules,...

This paper examines how the interaction of social trust and institutions, such as land administration, affects household economic decisions in Viet Nam. Using a panel dataset of rural households from 2008 to 2014, we show that negative consequences of the duration of land administration on...

We study empirically whether there is scope for parents to shape the economic preferences and attitudes of their children through purposeful investments. We exploit information on the risk and trust attitudes of parents and their children, as well as rich information about parental efforts in...

Frequent and open interaction between venture capitalists (VCs) and entrepreneurs is necessary for venture capital investments to occur. Increasingly, these investments are made across jurisdictions. The vast majority of these cross-border investments are carried out in a syndicate of two or...

Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Schleifer, and Robert Vishny (the “Gang of Four”) have captivated comparative corporate law scholars with their empirical research which claims to prove that ‘law' is the key to economic development. A foundational principle in their...

This article responds to the question: "Capitalism: What has gone wrong, what needs to change and how to fix it" for a special volume on capitalism in Oxford Review of Economic Policy. Debates on capitalism get muddled by blind spots about essential institutions, particularly effective...

The PRD has introduced a number of concepts that are new and untested throughout much of the EU. While the concepts themselves are not unfamiliar, many of the new provisions have created a field of controversy and debate among academics, practitioners, and policy makers as legislators begin to...

What does the law presume when it is proven simply that one person has made a payment of money to another? Surprisingly, there are three candidate answers to this question. First, a number of nineteenth-century authorities hold that ‘when money is paid by one man to another the legal...

The problem of the beneficial ownership of the family home has troubled courts throughout the common law world. It has proved extremely difficult "to unravel the tangled skein of human association, and apply to it considerations of legal principle." The Irish courts have had an unusually rich...

I study data on bribes actually paid by individuals to public officials, viewing the results through a theoretical lens that considers the implications of trust networks. A bond of trust may permit an implicit quid pro quo to substitute for a bribe, which reduces corruption. Appropriate networks...