Economic Growth and Judicial Independence: Cross Country Evidence Using a New Set of Indicators

Lars P. Feld () and Stefan Voigt ()

No CESifo Working Paper No. 906, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo GmbH

Abstract: Rational politicians are interested in judicial independence (JI) in order to make their promises credible. But if politicians' preferences deviate from the dicta of the judiciary, they also have incentives to renege on judicial independence. These two conflicting aspects are measured by two indicators: (i) de iure JI focusing on its legal foundations and (ii) a de facto JI focusing on countries' actually experience. Whether JI affects economic growth is tested for a cross section of 57 countries. While de iure JI does not have an impact on real GDP growth per capita growth, de facto JI positively influences it.

Keywords: economic growth; rule of law; judicial independence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 K40 O40 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-law
Date: Written 2003
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Related works:
Journal Article: Economic growth and judicial independence: cross-country evidence using a new set of indicators (2003)
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