institutional theory, based on political property rights and what we call polycentric sovereignty, which explains how the medieval …

This paper is a theoretical and empirical exploration of the connections between sovereignty (or its absence) and … growth rates in lagging countries over the period 1870 to 1950. Using a four-fold taxonomy of sovereignty, our estimates of … sovereignty differentials for growth rates of per capita income for 1900-1950 show a quantitatively strong positive impact of …