Law and Social Capital: Evidence from the Code Napoleon in Germany

Johannes Buggle

No 566, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: Do legal institutions affect norms of cooperation? Using the introduction of the Code Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars in Germany as a historical experiment, I show that a positive shock to the quality of legal institutions can increase social-capital long-lastingly. I find that individuals living in regions where the Code Napoleon was used display higher levels of interpersonal trust in the data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). This result holds true conditional on past development levels, as well as in a less heterogeneous border sample, separating regions that applied the Code Napoleon from those that did not. Artificially moving the border and comparing regional pre-treatment characteristics support the interpretation of a causal treatment effect. In addition, I show immediate effects of the Code Civil on novel measures of 19th century social capital. The analysis of historical employment data furthermore suggests economic cooperation to be a potential mechanism for the relationship between legal institutions and social capital.

Keywords: Institutions; Long-Term Persistence; Social Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N43 O10 P48 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 p.
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-his and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Law and social capital: Evidence from the Code Napoleon in Germany (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp566

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