1. 10th Class Attendance Sheet Audio Recorder on Review Legal Origin Exam –24 hour take home exam –Monday-Wednesday, April 16-18 2012 –Probably 3 documents and questions Much like documents and questions assigned and discussed for each class

2. Review English courts do not have power to invalidate legislation on constitutional grounds But several mechanisms by which can overturn executive, administrative and even judicial action –Ordinary trespass suit against government official Wilkes v. Wood –Habeas Corpus Bushell’s case –Certiorari Review of JPs and administrative courts

3. Legal Origin Nearly all countries have legal systems based on (British) common law or (French) civil law –Some countries have legal systems based on German or Scandinavian law –Some countries have elements of both systems Israel, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, South Africa Differences –Judicial decisionmaking more important in Common Law countries Codes more important in civil law countries –Juries sometimes used in Common Law countries –Career judiciaries in civil law countries Recent law graduates become judges in less important courts, and then are promote over time –Like civil service position “recognition” judiciaries in common law countries –Judges appointed late in life after careers in private or public sector –Common law judges have greater protections for judicial independence In what way is Israel a common law country? In ways is it a civil law country? Is common law better? Is civil law better?

4. LLSV = LaPorta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer & Vishny –Economists at Harvard, World Bank…. Over the last decade, LLSV have written very influential papers that show link from common law legal origin to good policies and outcomes –Investor protection → large capital markets –Free labor markets → low unemployment –Judicial independence → property rights Theory –Common law more supportive of free markets –Common law more adaptable, less formalistic

5. Contributions My Paper Analysis of colonial origin –Legal origin highly correlated with colonial origin But not identical –Law was not only institution imposed by colonial power Education, infrastructure, etc. –English, French and other colonial powers did not colonize randomly Economic Growth, 1960-2007 as dependent variable –In general, care about investor protection and property rights because care about economic growth

6. CountryGrowth 1960- 2007 Legal Origin Colonial Origin Education in 1960 Life Expect. In 1960 GDP p.c. 1960 Taiwan5.9%GermanJapan96%651720 Botswana5.7%MixedBritish42%46651 S. Korea5.7%GermanJapan94%542094 Singapore4.3%CommonBritish100%644000 Malaysia4.4%CommonBritish96%542171 Haiti-0.3%French 46%421822 Nicaragua-0.5%FrenchSpanish66%472706 Niger-0.8%French 5%351225 C.A.Rep.-1.2%French 32%391543 Zaire-3.5%FrenchBelgian60%421953

7. (1)(2)(3) French Law, French Colony0.00 French Law, Not French Colony0.78 -020 1.13 Common Law, British Colony1.01 0.291.18 Mixed Law, British Colony2.11 0.892.06 Education in 1960 0.58 Life Expectancy in 19600.09 Juries 1960 0.73 Case Law 1973-0.26 Judicial Independence 1960-0.37 Statistical Significance: Legal and Colonial OriginYes p=0.00 No p=0.11 Yes p=0.01 Statistical Significance: Other variablesYes p=0.00 No p=0.26

8. Robustness Checks LLSV coding of legal origin Countries still colonies in 1960 Countries for which legal origin exogenous Just legal origin (without colonial origin) Just colonial origin (without legal origin) Horse race: colonial & legal origin together Geographic variables –Not robust –Matched pairs –Plan more work Log 2003 GDP per capita as dependent variable

9. Other Dependent Variables Regressions with other dependent variables –Market cap/GDP; Credit/GDP; Corruption; Unemployment –Neither legal origin nor colonial origin consistently better Puzzle: Why is common law associated with so many good things (e.g. capital markets, property rights…) but not economic growth? 3 plausible solutions –Capital markets etc. don’t matter for growth Acemoglu & Robinson, “Unbundling Institutions” (2005) –Common law has offsetting disadvantages Spamann, “Legal Origins of Crime…” –Effect of things measured by LLSV are positive But too small to be captured by regressions. Perhaps 0.5%

10. Conclusion Hard to disentangle legal and colonial origin –But results suggest that colonial origin was more important, at least for economic growth Common Law countries grew, on average, 0.5% faster But common law advantage better explained by colonial policy and selection than by law –Non-French colonies with French law grew faster than French colonies –British colonies with mixed legal systems grew faster than those with common law –Colonial proxies (education, life expectancy) have more explanatory power than legal proxies (juries, case law, judicial independence)