Historical Legacy and Institutions Across Countries

Kevin Sylwester

Journal of Applied Economics, 2008, vol. 11, issue 2, 373-398

Abstract: Several recent theories postulate why some countries were able to devise institutions conducive to long-run economic growth whereas others were not. Most of these consider various historical factors or geographic characteristics as important predeterminants. But which of these theories comes closest to the truth? This paper simultaneously considers several competing theories and empirically examines which ones provide the strongest explanations for contemporary institutions. I find that settler mortality rates are strongly associated with contemporary institutions even when controlling for other important historical factors, including ones from theories that do not emphasize geographic characteristics. However, Englebert's concept of state legitimacy does best at explaining institutional outcomes within sub-Saharan Africa.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15140326.2008.12040512 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:recsxx:v:11:y:2008:i:2:p:373-398

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/recs20

DOI: 10.1080/15140326.2008.12040512

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Applied Economics is currently edited by Jorge M. Streb

More articles in Journal of Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().