Standard economic theory sees labour law as an exogenous interference with market relations and predicts mostly negative impacts on employment and productivity. We argue for a more nuanced theoretical position: labour law is, at least in part, endogenous, with both the production and the...

This study re-examines the theory of legal origin on the basis of a new longitudinal dataset on creditor protection for four OECD countries over a long time span 1970-2005. It observes that civil law countries (France and Germany) provided a higher level of protection to creditors on the issue...

Using the persistence of corporate profits as a measure of the intensity of product market competition in 19 countries for the period 1995-2005, we find that civil law systems are more competitive, in this sense, than common law ones. Greater shareholder protection increases competition between...