Religious Leaders and Rule Of Law

Sultan Mehmood () and Avner Seror
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Sultan Mehmood: New Economic School

No w0280, Working Papers from New Economic School (NES)

Abstract: In this paper, we provide systematic evidence of how historical religious institutions affect the rule of law. In a difference-in-differences framework, we show that districts in Pakistan where the historical presence of religious institutions is higher, rule of law is worse. This deterioration is economically significant, persistent, and explained by the rise of religious leaders elected to political office. We explain our findings with a model where religious leaders leverage their high legitimacy to run for office and influence Courts. Our estimate of the economy-wide losses attributed to land expropriation by religious leaders through Courts is about 0.06 percent of GDP every year.

Keywords: Leaders; Religion; Rule of Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K10 K40 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.nes.ru/files/Preprints-resh/WP280.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Religious leaders and rule of law (2023)
Working Paper: Religious leaders and rule of law (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:abo:neswpt:w0280

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