: Daniel Oto-Peralías, Diego Romero-Ávila
: Legal Traditions, Legal Reforms and Economic Performance Theory and Evidence
: Springer-Verlag
: 9783319670416
: 1
: CHF 95.40
:
: Handels-, Wirtschaftsrecht
: English
: 255
: Wasserzeichen/DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF
This book investigates whether legal reforms intended to create a market-friendly regulatory business environment have a positive impact on economic and financial outcomes. After conducting a critical review of the legal origins literature, the authors first analyze the evolution of legal rules and regulations during the last decade (2006-2014). For that purpose, the book uses legal/regulatory indicators from the World Bank's Doing Business Project (2015). The findings indicate that countries have actively reformed their legal systems during this period, particularly French civil law countries. A process of convergence in the evolution of legal rules and regulations is observed: countries starting in 2006 in a lower position have improved more than countries with better initial scores. Also, French civil law countries have reformed their legal systems to a larger extent than common law countries and, consequently, have improved more in the majority of the Doing Business indicators used. Second, the authors estimate fixed-effects panel regressions to analyze the relationship between changes in legal rules and regulations and changes in the real economy. The findings point to a lack of systematic effects of legal rules and regulations on economic and financial outcomes. This result stands in contrast to the widespread belief that reforms aiming to strengthen investor and creditor rights (and other market-friendly policies) systematically lead to better economic and financial outcomes.



Daniel Oto-Peralias is lecturer (Assistant Professor) at St Andrews University School of Management. He holds university degrees in Management and Business Administration and in Law, and has conducted postgraduate studies in economics and politics. He received his PhD from Pablo de Olavide University (Spain) in June 2014. His research focuses on the fields of law and finance and economic development, particularly on the role played by inequality and institutions in economic activity and welfare, paying special attention to the historical processes involved. Daniel has contributed to many economics conferences and has published articles in prestigious economic journals such asJournal of the European Economic Association, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, andJournal of Law and Economics. During 2016 he undertook consultancy work for the World Bank on the subject of law and development.'
 
Diego Romero-Ávila is Associate Profes
sor at Pablo de Olavide University. He has been Research Fellow at the European Central Bank, Visiting Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business, and External Consultant at the World Bank. His research interests lie in the fields of Macroeconomics and Development Economics. He has published articles in such academic journals as International Economic Review, Journal of the European Economic Association, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and Economic Inquiry,among others.
Acknowledgements6
Abstract7
Contents9
Chapter 1: Introduction11
Chapter 2: Revisiting the Legal Origins Hypothesis: A Brief Review of the Literature14
2.1 The Legal Origins View14
2.2 Arguments Based on Colonialism and the Distribution of Legal Traditions Around the World18
2.3 Arguments Based on Political Economy21
2.4 Arguments Based on Measurement and Recoding of Legal Data23
2.5 Recapitulation26
Box: Criticisms to the Legal Origins Theory27
Chapter 3: Data Description30
3.1 Legal and Regulatory Indicators30
3.2 Economic and Financial Outcomes36
3.3 Description of Doing Business Reforms Since 200638
Chapter 4: Literature Review on the Effect of the Ease of Doing Business on Economic and Financial Outcomes46
4.1 Research on Protecting Minority Investors46
4.2 Research on Getting Credit and Information Disclosure48
4.3 Research on Contract Enforcement51
4.4 Research on Resolving Insolvency53
4.5 Research on Starting a Business56
4.6 Research on Registering a Property and Protecting Property Rights59
4.7 Research on Dealing with Construction Permits61
4.8 Research on Paying Taxes62
4.9 Research on Trading Across Borders63
Chapter 5: Legal Change Within Legal Traditions and Convergence66
5.1 Has There Been Legal Change over the Period 2006-2014?66
5.2 Have Legal Reforms Reduced the Differences in Legal Rules/Regulations Across Legal Traditions?72
5.3 Has There Been Convergence in Legal and Regulatory Standards Among Legal Traditions over the Period 2006-2014?77
5.4 More on Convergence: Robustness Checks83
Chapter 6: Legal Rules Variation and Countries´ Economic and Financial Performance93
6.1 The Effect of Legal Rules and Regulations on Economic and Financial Performance94
6.2 Distinguishing the Circumstances Under Which the Effect Takes Place98
6.2.1 Differentiating by Level of Development99
6.2.2 Differentiating by Institutional Quality104
6.2.3 Differentiating by Legal Tradition104
6.2.4 Interacting Legal and Regulatory Indicators with the Level of Development117
6.3 Graphical Analysis of the Relationship Between Legal Change and Financial and Economic Development117
Chapter 7: Sensitivity Analyses on the Effect of Legal Rules Variation on Economic and Financial Performance128
7.1 Using Alternative Legal Indicators128
7.2 Using Alternative Panel Estimations: Difference and System GMM Estimators132
7.3 General Discussion141
Chapter 8: The Effectiveness of Legal Reforms and the Gap Between Law on the Books and the Reality on the Ground143
8.1 Explanatory Factors for the Effectiveness of Legal Reforms: A Preliminary Analysis144
8.2 Gap Between Law on the Books and the Reality on the Ground152
8.3 Gap Between Law on the Books and Law in Action160
8.4 Summary of Results167
Chapter 9: Conclusions168
Appendix171
References248