Institutions and Economic Growth in Historical Perspective: Part 2

Arbeitspapier

This is Part 2 of a two-part paper which surveys the historical evidence on the role of institutions in economic growth. The paper provides a critical scrutiny of a number of stylized facts widely accepted in the growth literature. It shows that private-order institutions have not historically substituted for public-order ones in enabling markets to function; that parliaments representing wealth holders have not invariably been favourable for growth; and that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 did not mark the sudden emergence of either secure property rights or economic growth. Economic history has been used to support both the centrality and the irrelevance of secure property rights to growth, but the reason for this is conceptual vagueness. Secure property rights require much more careful analysis, distinguishing between rights of ownership, use and transfer, and between generalized and particularized variants. Similar careful analysis would, we argue, clarify the growth effects of other institutions, including contract-enforcement mechanisms, guilds, communities, serfdom, and the family. Greater precision concerning institutional effects on growth can be achieved by developing sharper criteria of application for conventional institutional labels, endowing institutions with a scale of intensity or degree, and recognizing that the effects of each institution depend on its relationship with other components of the wider institutional system. Part 2 of the paper examines how institutions are situated in wider institutional systems, explores alternative approaches to explaining institutions, and applies the arguments established in earlier sections to the institution of serfdom. It concludes by drawing the implications of both parts of the paper for institutions and economic growth in historical perspective.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 4862

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: General, International, or Comparative ; Economic History: Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment, and Extractive Industries: General, International, or Comparative ; Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services: General, International, or Comparative ; Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements ; Economic Systems: General
• Subject: institutions ; economic growth ; economic history ; private-order institutions ; public-order institutions ; parliaments ; property rights ; contract enforcement ; guilds ; serfdom ; the family ; Maghribi traders ; Champagne fairs ; European Marriage Pattern

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ogilvie, Sheilagh ; Carus, A. W.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2014

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/102126
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET