Access to Justice and Economic Development: Evidence from an International Panel Dataset

Arnaud Deseau, Adam Levai and Michèle Schmiegelow ()
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Michèle Schmiegelow: UCLouvain, CRIDES

No 2019009, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: We empirically investigate the impact of access to justice (ATJ) on GDP per capita growth in a panel of 83 countries from 1970 to 2014. Our analysis relies on a new database documenting the number of judges per capita as a proxy for capturing the cross-country evolution of ATJ. The proxy measures the extent to which disputes between economic actors can be resolved at a relatively low cost, without dysfunctional delay and discrimination. In a dynamic panel setting using internal instruments, we find that increasing ATJ by 1% increases the five-year growth rate of GDP per capita by 0.86 p.p. (0.17 p.p. annually) with diminishing marginal returns. In line with the diminishing marginal returns argument, we find that the effect of ATJ is two times smaller in Europe compared to other regions due to higher levels of ATJ. We find no evidence of a differential effect of ATJ across other regions, income levels, legal origins, democracy, corruption of the judicial system or human capital levels.

Keywords: Access to Justice; Legal development; Economic Development; Growth; Institution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E02 K00 O11 O43 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-law and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Access to justice and economic development: Evidence from an international panel dataset (2025)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2019009

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