Helpful Governments
This paper provides an alternative way of testing the theory of legal origins, one based on a firm's perception of how helpful the government is for doing business. The author argues that an approach based on firm perceptions offers a number o...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/03/9075950/helpful-governments http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6567 |
| Summary: | This paper provides an alternative way
of testing the theory of legal origins, one based on a
firm's perception of how helpful the government is for
doing business. The author argues that an approach based on
firm perceptions offers a number of advantages over existing
studies. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates that
heavier regulation in civil law compared with common law
countries is not viewed by businesses as an efficient and
socially desirable response to disorder. Further, the
findings show a strong effect of legal tradition on
government helpfulness even after controlling for various
institutional measures known to be correlated with the legal
tradition of countries. This suggests that there is more to
legal tradition than what existing studies have unearthed. |
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