TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hoff,Karla
AU  - Stiglitz,Joseph E.
TI  - After the Big Bang? Obstacles to the Emergence of the Rule of Law in Post-Communist Societies
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9282
PY  - 2002
Y2  - October 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9282
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9282.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Uris Hall, Columbia University
3022 Broadway, Room 814
New York, NY  10027
Tel: 212/854-0671
Fax: 212/662-8474
E-Mail: jes322@columbia.edu
M1  - published as Hoff, Karla and Joseph E. Stiglitz. "After The Big Bang? Obstacles To The Emergence Of The Rule Of Law In Post-Communist Societies," American Economic Review, 2004, v94(3,Jun), 753-763.
AB  - When Russia launched mass privatization, it was widely believed that it would create a powerful constituency for the rule of law. That didn't happen.  We present a dynamic equilibrium model of the political demand for the rule of law and show that beneficiaries of mass privatization may fail to demand the rule of law even if it is the Pareto efficient  rule of the game.' The reason is that uncertainty about the legal regime can lead to asset stripping, and stripping can give agents an interest in prolonging the absence of the rule of law.
ER  -