Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect

Daniel Berkowitz, Katharina Pistor and Jean-Francois Richard

No 308, William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series from William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School

Abstract: We analyze the determinants of effective legal institutions (legality) using data from 49 countries. We show that the way the law was initially transplanted and received is a more important determinant than the supply of law from a particular legal family. Countries that have developed legal orders internally, adapted the transplanted law, and/or had a population that was already familiar with basic principles of the transplanted law have more effective legality than countries that received foreign law without any similar pre-dispositions. The transplanting process has a strong indirect effect on economic development via its impact on legality.

Keywords: transplant versus origin; receptive; unreceptive; direct and indirect transplants; legality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O1 O57 K00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-pke
Date: Written 2000-02-01
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Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect (2001)
Working Paper: Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect (2000)
Journal Article: Economic development, legality, and the transplant effect (2003)
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