Country size and the rule of law: Resuscitating Montesquieu

Ola Olsson and Gustav Hansson ()

European Economic Review, 2011, vol. 55, issue 5, 613-629

Abstract: In this paper, we demonstrate that there is a robust negative relationship between the size of country territory and a measure of the rule of law for a large cross-section of countries. We outline a framework featuring two main reasons for this regularity; firstly that institutional quality often has the character of a local public good that is imperfectly spread across space from the core of the country to the hinterland, and secondly that a large territory usually is accompanied by valuable rents and a lack of openness that both tend to distort property rights institutions. Our empirical analysis further shows some evidence that whether the capital is centrally or peripherally located within the country matters for the average level of rule of law.

Keywords: Country; size; Rule; of; law; Institutions; Development; Montesquieu (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Country Size and the Rule of Law: Resuscitating Montesquieu (2006)
Working Paper: Country Size and the Rule of Law: Resuscitating Montesquieu (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:55:y:2011:i:5:p:613-629

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