Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect

Daniel Berkowitz, Katharina Pistor and Jean-Francois Richard

CID Working Papers from Center for International Development at Harvard University

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: legal transplants; legal families; legality; effectiveness of legal institutions; economic development (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-law
Date: Written 2000-03
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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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