We develop a framework that examines the organizational challenges faced by central rulers governing large territories, where administrative power needs to be delegated to local elites. We describe how economic change can motivate rulers to empower different elites and emphasize the interaction...

The origin of the modern publicly-held joint-stock company is typically traced to large-scale maritime trading companies in England and the Netherlands in the early 17th century. Highlighting medieval cases in southern Europe, we claim that the joint-stock company likely emerged in several times...

There are two competing accounts for explaining Britain's technological transformation during the Industrial Revolution. One sees it as the inevitable outcome of a largely exogenous increase in the supply of new ideas and ways of thinking. The other sees it as a demand side response to economic...

In der Juniausgabe 2012 veröffentlichte der Wirtschaftsdienst einen Aufsatz mit dem Titel „Regulierung, Bildung und Wohlstand – der IW-Regulierungsindex“. Enrico Schöbel und Lars Petersen setzen sich damit kritisch auseinander und Dominik H. Enste und Jochen Wicher erläutern ihren...

In der Juniausgabe 2012 veröffentlichte der Wirtschaftsdienst einen Aufsatz mit dem Titel „Regulierung, Bildung und Wohlstand – der IW-Regulierungsindex“. Enrico Schöbel und Lars Petersen setzen sich damit kritisch auseinander und Dominik H. Enste und Jochen Wicher erläutern ihren...

We document empirical support for a key micro-level channel—innovation by young, private firms—through which financial sector deregulation affects economic growth. We find that intrastate banking deregulation, which increased the local market power of banks, decreased the level and risk of...

Using threshold estimation techniques, this study examines whether the growth effect of stock market development differs according to the different levels of property rights and minority shareholders protection in a cross-section of 85 jurisdictions during the post-crisis period. The results...

Why has the expansion of women's economic and political rights coincided with economic development? This paper investigates this question, focusing on a key economic right for women: property rights. The basic hypothesis is that the process of development (i.e., capital accumulation and...

In 1795 the British took control of the Cape colony (South Africa) from the Dutch; and in 1843 they exogenously changed the legal basis of landholding, giving more secure property rights to landholders. Since endowments and other factors were held constant, these changes offer clean tests of the...

We propose and investigate a new channel through which the resource curse - a stylized fact that countries rich in natural resources grow slower - operates. Predatory governments are more likely to expropriate corporate profits in natural-resource industries when the price of resources is...