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Quality of enforcement and investment decisions. Firm-level evidence from Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Dejuán

    (Banco de España)

  • Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

Investment decisions are generally irreversible and could be affected by holdup problems and opportunism. Thus, investment may need sound enforcement institutions. This paper analyzes firm level data to identify the impact of judicial system efficacy, as representative of the institutional quality, in business investment decisions. More specifically, this research measures the effects of congestion in the Spanish civil (private) jurisdiction at the local level, both when solving ordinary trials and executions (when a judge forces the debtor to pay or to fulfill an obligation) and finds a negative and significant relationship between judicial inefficacy and the gross investment ratio. The effect holds after running several robustness checks. This paper also analyzes the efficacy of the administrative jurisdiction, inspired by the hypothesis of Acemoglu and Johnson (2005), but it does not have a significant impact on investment in our sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Dejuán & Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti, 2019. "Quality of enforcement and investment decisions. Firm-level evidence from Spain," Working Papers 1927, Banco de España.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:1927
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    File URL: https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosTrabajo/19/Fich/dt1927e.pdf
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    2. Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti, 2021. "The impact of the efficacy of justice on business investment in Spain," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue 3/2021.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    investment decisions; justice; enforcement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K12 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Contract Law

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