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Do Legal Origins Predict Legal Substance?

Author

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  • Anu Bradford
  • Yun-chien Chang
  • Adam Chilton
  • Nuno Garoupa

Abstract

There is a large body of research in economics and law suggesting that the legal origin of a country—that is, whether its legal regime is based on English common law or French, German, or Nordic civil law—profoundly impacts a range of outcomes. However, the exact relationship between legal origin and legal substance has been disputed in the literature and not fully explored with nuanced legal coding. We revisit this debate while leveraging novel cross-country data sets that provide detailed coding of two areas of laws: property and antitrust. We find that having shared legal origins strongly predicts whether countries have similar property regimes but does little to predict whether countries have similar antitrust regimes. Our results suggest that legal origin may be an important predictor of legal substance in well-established legal regimes but does little to explain substantive variation in more recent areas of law.

Suggested Citation

  • Anu Bradford & Yun-chien Chang & Adam Chilton & Nuno Garoupa, 2021. "Do Legal Origins Predict Legal Substance?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 207-231.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/712420
    DOI: 10.1086/712420
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Smith & Graham Brownlow, 2023. "Informal Institutions as Inhibitors of Rent-Seeking Entrepreneurship: Evidence From U.S. Legal History," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2323-2346, November.
    2. Barriola, Illan & Deffains, Bruno & Musy, Olivier, 2023. "Law and inequality: A comparative approach to the distributive implications of legal systems," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Bertrand, Jérémie & Perrin, Caroline, 2022. "Girls Just Wanna Have Funds? The effect of women-friendly legislation on female-led firms’ access to credit," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Ding, Rong & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Xianda & Xu, Ziwei, 2022. "Do women drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from gender diversity reforms around the world," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Tomita, Yosuke, 2024. "Does downside risk in the stock market differ by legal origin? The impact of property rights and the rule of law on stock markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Cihan Artunç, 2024. "Legal origins of corporate governance: Choice of law in Egypt, 1887–1914," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 3-40, February.
    7. Per G. Fredriksson & Satyendra Kumar Gupta & Weihua Zhao & Jim R. Wollscheid, 2023. "Legal heritage and urban slums," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 236-252, January.
    8. Frensch, Richard & Horvath, Roman & Huber, Stephan, 2021. "Openness effects on the rule of law: Size and patterns of trade," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

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