The Legal Origins of Financial Development: Evidence from the Shanghai Concessions / Ross Levine, Chen Lin, Chicheng Ma, Yuchen Xu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levine, Ross.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lin, Chen (Finance professor)

Ma, Chicheng.

Xu, Yuchen.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28794.

NBER working paper series no. w28794

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

We assemble new data on the British and French concessions in Shanghai between 1845 and 1936 to assess the legal origins view of financial development. During this period, two regime changes altered the degree to which the British common and French civil law traditions held jurisdiction over the respective concessions: the 1869 formation of the Mixed Courts strengthened Western legal jurisdiction, while the 1926 rendition agreement returned those courts to Chinese control. By examining the changing application of different legal traditions to adjacent neighborhoods within the same city, we address identification challenges associated with cross-country studies. Consistent with the legal origins view, the financial development advantage in the British concession widened after the formation of the Courts and shrank after their rendition.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2021.