Timely justice as a determinant of economic growth

Simeon Djankov, Alessandro Melcarne, Giovanni B. Ramello and Rok Spruk

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, vol. 238, issue C

Abstract: We investigate how timeliness in enforcing legal contracts affects economic growth across countries. We focus on judicial timeliness as a proxy for courts’ performance in a large panel of 169 countries over the 2004–2019 period. We show that, by raising uncertainty and promoting opportunistic behaviors in business transactions, slower courts hinder economic development. The relationship is robust to diverse model specifications and appears stronger for business environments more heavily relying on judiciaries such as economies undergoing rapid growth, countries characterized by low human capital and civil law jurisdictions.

Keywords: Economic growth; Institutions; Judicial timeliness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H4 K41 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:238:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125003543

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107235

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