An Alternative View on Law, Institutions, Finance and Growth

Franklin Allen, Jun Qian and Chenying Zhang
Additional contact information
Franklin Allen: University of PA
Jun Qian: Boston College
Chenying Zhang: University of PA

Working Papers from University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center

Abstract: The spectacular economic growth in East Asian economies such as China, South Korea and Taiwan over the past five decades contradicts most of the existing research on law, institutions, finance, and growth. We propose an alternative view based on the comparison of legal institutions and alternative institutions outside the legal system. Despite well-known advantages, the legal system, as a monopolist institution, can be captured by interest groups and become a barrier to innovations. Moreover, in a dynamic environment alternative institutions can adapt and change much more quickly than when the law is used, as this process does not require persuading the legislature and the electorate to revise the law. We argue that in fast-growing economies and during early stages of economic growth, efficient alternative institutions are the main driver for finance, commerce and growth. In static environments with low and predictable growth, legal institutions can play a more important role in supporting finance and commerce. In these environments, however, viable alternative institutions and competition among different types of institutions remain keys to ensuring that the most efficient mechanism prevails and sustains long-term growth.

JEL-codes: H00 P50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/papers/11/11-64.pdf
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/papers/11/11-64.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://wifpr.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/papers/11/11-64.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:upafin:11-64

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().