TY  - JOUR
AU  - Levine,Ross
TI  - Law, Endowments, and Property Rights
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11502
PY  - 2005
Y2  - August 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11502
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11502.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ross Levine
Department of Economics
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-2170
E-Mail: ross_levine@brown.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2005-08-01
AB  - While scholars have hypothesized about the sources of variation in property rights for over 2500
years, it is only very recently that researchers have begun to test these theories empirically. This
paper reviews both the theory and empirical evidence supporting and refuting the law and
endowment views of property rights. The law view holds that historically determined differences in
national legal traditions continue to shape cross-country differences in property rights. The
endowment view argues that during European colonization, differences in climate, crops, the
indigenous population, and the disease environment influenced long-run property rights.
ER  -