This study re-examines the theory of legal-origin on the basis of a new longitudinal dataset for four OECD countries (UK, USA, France and Germany) over a long time span 1970-2005. It observes that the civil law countries (France and Germany) provided better minority shareholder protection and...

The world economic order created by the internationot;nal economic institutions such as the IMF and World Bank - the Siamese twins born at Bretton Woods - did not benefit the poor countries and there is no prosnot;pect for them to improve their living standards. Before the Bretton Woods era,...