Family Types and Political Development

Arbeitspapier

Many years ago, Emmanuel Todd argued that differences in family organization - specifically the rules of inheritance, the number of generations living under one roof, and endogamous marriage - are reflected in the organization of the state. He also argued that different family types lead to different paths of economic development. Economists have long ignored these sweeping claims, but with increasing interest in the deep causes of economic development, family types have caught the attention of some economists. Here, we try to take Todd seriously and evaluate his predictions empirically. Relying on a parsimonious model with exogenous covariates, we find mixed results. On the one hand, countries in which authoritarian family types dominate have much higher levels of the rule of law and innovation than predicted by Todd. On the other, countries in which the communitarian family types dominate are characterized by racism, low levels of the rule of law, few checks on government, and late industrialization. Countries in which endogamy is frequently practiced display a high level of state fragility and have weak civil society organizations.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ILE Working Paper Series ; No. 34

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Behavior: General ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Family and Personal Law ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative ; Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements ; Cultural Economics: Religion
• Subject: Family types ; family systems ; family structures ; ideology ; state formation ; constitutional structure ; economic development

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gutmann, Jerg ; Voigt, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics (ILE)
• (where): Hamburg
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/216096
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET