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When the Law Does Not Matter: The Rise and Decline of the Mexican Oil Industry

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Author Info
Haber, Stephen
Maurer, Noel
Razo, Armando
Abstract

Changes in formal institutions do not always affect economic outcomes. When an industry has specific technological features that limit a government s ability to expropriate it, or when the industry is able to call on foreign governments to enforce its de facto property rights, economic agents can easily mitigate changes in formal institutions designed to reduce these property rights. We explore the Mexican oil industry from 1911 to 1929 and demonstrate that informal rather than formal institutions were key, permitting oil companies to coordinate their responses to increases in taxes or the redefinition of their de jure property rights.

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File URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022050703001712
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Cambridge University Press in its journal The Journal of Economic History.

Volume (Year): 63 (2003)
Issue (Month): 01 (March)
Pages: 1-32
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:63:y:2003:i:01:p:1-32_00

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  1. Noel Maurer & Lakshmi Iyer, 2008. "The Cost of Property Rights: Establishing Institutions on the Philippine Frontier Under American Rule, 1898-1918," NBER Working Papers 14298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2009. "Property Rights and EconomicDevelopment," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 006, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. M. del Mar Rubio Varas, 2005. "The Role of Mexico in the First Oil Shortage: 1918-1922, an International Perspective," Economics Working Papers 888, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-12-1.


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