Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267320 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10088
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We generate and analyze data pertinent to the role of caselaw in England's economic development during the Industrial Revolution. Applying topic modeling to a corpus of 67,455 reports on English court cases, we construct annual time series of caselaw developments between 1765 and 1865. We then add a real per-capita GDP series to our caselaw series and estimate a structural VAR. Caselaw shocks account for more of the variability in per-capita GDP than do shocks directly to per-capita GDP. The response of per-capita GDP to caselaw innovations critically depends on the legal domain. Developments in caselaw on intellectual property, organizations, debt and finance, and inheritance exerted positive effects while developments in property and ecclesiastical caselaw reduced per-capita GDP. Our analysis uncovers a 'bleak law era' when the legal system misallocated attention between development-promoting and development-hindering areas of law.
Subjects: 
caselaw
England
economic development
Industrial Revolution
topic modelling
time series
JEL: 
N13
N43
K10
K30
P48
O17
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.