The statistical objections raised against the Singer-Prebisch thesis regarding the secular decline in the terms of trade of primary products in relation to manufactures, do not have as sound a basis as is generally supposed they have on a priori grounds. The projection of that historical...

This paper analyses a longitudinal dataset on legal protection of shareholders over a 36 year period, 1970--2005, for four advanced countries, the UK, France, Germany and the USA. It examines two aspects of the legal origin hypothesis--whether shareholder protection is higher in the common law...

This article examines the unemployment consequences of an employment protection law (EPL) on the basis of OECD EPL indicators for 23 OECD countries over the period 1990–2008. Using the alternative dynamic panel data models and panel causality tests, it examines the validity of the neo-liberal...

This paper analyzes the regulation of interfirm contracting in Germany, Britian, and Italy. Contrary to earlier empirical studies and to models drawn from transaction-cost theory, the authors find that contract law may play an important role in underpinning long-term, cooperative relationships...

The neoliberal policy of deregulation has failed to bring about significant improvements in the efficiency of the labor market in Britain. Cuts in social protection and legal constraints upon collective bargaining have contributed to growing inequalities in income and security of employment,...

Changes in public policy and corporate strategy have enhanced the role of contracts as mechanisms of economic governance. The understanding that norms, standards, and other forms of regulatory mechanism can affect the structure of incentives and the quality of contractual outcomes has helped to...