EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Exiting a Lawless State

Karla Hoff and Joseph Stiglitz

Economic Journal, 2008, vol. 118, issue 531, 1474-1497

Abstract: An earlier paper showed that an economy could be trapped in an equilibrium state in which the absence of the rule of law led to asset‐stripping and the prevalence of asset‐stripping led to the absence of a demand for the rule of law, highlighting a coordination failure. This article looks more carefully at the dynamics of transition from a non‐rule‐of‐law state. The article identifies a commitment problem as the critical feature inhibiting the transition: the inability, under a rule of law, to forgive theft. This can lead to the perpetuation of the non‐rule‐of‐law state, even when it might seem that the alternative is Pareto‐improving.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02177.x

Related works:
Journal Article: Exiting a Lawless State (2008)
Working Paper: Exiting a lawless state (2008) Downloads
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:wly:econjl:v:118:y:2008:i:531:p:1474-1497

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://onlinelibrary ... 1111/(ISSN)1468-0297

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Journal is currently edited by Estelle Cantillon, Martin Cripps, Andrea Galeotti, Morten Ravn, Kjell G. Salvanes, Frederic Vermeulen, Hans-Joachim Voth and Rachel Kranton

More articles in Economic Journal from Royal Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:wly:econjl:v:118:y:2008:i:531:p:1474-1497