IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/aelcon/v11y2021i1p1-7n7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality – Core Themes

Author

Listed:
  • Pistor Katharina

    (Law School, Columbia University, New York, USA)

Abstract

In this brief introduction, I summarize the core themes of my book “The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality”. Capital, I argue, is coded in law – predominantly in a handful of private law institutions. By relying on legal coding techniques, asset holders invoke the right to enforce claims against others, if necessary with the help of the state’s coercive power.

Suggested Citation

  • Pistor Katharina, 2021. "The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality – Core Themes," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:1-7:n:7
    DOI: 10.1515/ael-2020-0102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ael-2020-0102
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ael-2020-0102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    2. Ricks, Morgan, 2016. "The Money Problem," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226330327.
    3. Kronman, Anthony T, 1985. "Contract Law and the State of Nature," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 5-32, Spring.
    4. Geoffrey Hodgson, 2009. "On the Institutional Foundations of Law: The Insufficiency of Custom and Private Ordering," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 143-166.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephan Puehringer & Matthias Aistleitner & Lukas Cserjan & Sophie Hieselmayr & Jan Weber, 2025. "Idiosyncrasies of the oligarchic elite: On the political economy of wealth concentration in Austria," ICAE Working Papers 157, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    2. Stephan Pühringer & Matthias Aistleitner & Lukas Cserjan & Sophie Hieselmayr & Jakob Weber, 2024. "Idiosyncrasies of the superrich: On the political economy of wealth concentration in Austria," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 254, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berkowitz, Daniel & Pistor, Katharina & Richard, Jean-Francois, 2003. "Economic development, legality, and the transplant effect," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 165-195, February.
    2. Pistor, Katharina, 2013. "A legal theory of finance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 315-330.
    3. Ryan Felushko & Eric Santor, 2006. "The International Monetary Fund's Balance-Sheet and Credit Risk," Staff Working Papers 06-21, Bank of Canada.
    4. Cooray, Arusha, 2011. "The role of the government in financial sector development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 928-938, May.
    5. Lo Turco, Alessia & Maggioni, Daniela & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Financial dependence and growth: The role of input-output linkages," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 308-328.
    6. William T. Allen & Han Shen, 2011. "Assessing China's Top-Down Securities Markets," NBER Working Papers 16713, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Bruno Deffains, 2007. "Uncertainty of Law and the Legal Process," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 163(4), pages 627-656, December.
    8. Singha, Ajay Kumar & PoojaDhingra, Miss, 2013. "A multi-dimensional ethical approach to accounting and reporting practices," APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, AGRIMBA, vol. 7(4-5), pages 1-14.
    9. Chan-Jane Lin & Tawei Wang & Chao-Jung Pan, 2016. "Financial reporting quality and investment decisions for family firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 499-532, June.
    10. Barucci, Emilio & Mattesini, Fabrizio, 2008. "Bank shareholding and lending: Complementarity or substitution? Some evidence from a panel of large Italian firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 2237-2247, October.
    11. Haichao Fan & Xiang Gao, 2017. "Domestic Creditor Rights and External Private Debt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(606), pages 2410-2440, November.
    12. Pradeepta Sethi & Brajesh Kumar, 2014. "Financial structure gap and economic development in India," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 776-794, September.
    13. Blazy, Régis & Chopard, Bertrand & Nigam, Nirjhar, 2013. "Building legal indexes to explain recovery rates: An analysis of the French and English bankruptcy codes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1936-1959.
    14. Katharina Pistor & Martin Raiser & Stanislaw Gelfer, 2000. "Law and Finance in Transition Economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 8(2), pages 325-368, July.
    15. Enikolopov, Ruben & Petrova, Maria & Stepanov, Sergey, 2014. "Firm value in crisis: Effects of firm-level transparency and country-level institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 72-84.
    16. Knack, Steve & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2017. "Unbundling institutions for external finance: Worldwide firm-level evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 215-232.
    17. Astudillo, Alfonso & Braun, Matías & Castañeda, Pablo, 2011. "The going public decision and the structure of equity markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1451-1470.
    18. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "The Guarantees of Freedom," NBER Working Papers 8759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Apanard P. Prabha & Clas Wihlborg & Thomas D. Willett, 2012. "Market Discipline for Financial Institutions and Markets for Information," Chapters, in: James R. Barth & Chen Lin & Clas Wihlborg (ed.), Research Handbook on International Banking and Governance, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Miguel García-Posada & Juan Mora-Sanguinetti, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and enforcement institutions: disaggregated evidence for Spain," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 49-74, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capital; private law; the legal profession; global capitalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P12 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Enterprises
    • P14 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Property Rights
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:1-7:n:7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.