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The Evolution of a Nation: How Geography and Law Shaped the American States

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The Evolution of a Nation: How Geography and Law Shaped the American States

Author:   Daniel Berkowitz ,  Karen B. Clay
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
ISBN:  

9780691136042


Pages:   240
Publication Date:   21 November 2011
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Available   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you.


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Overview

Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood. Drawing on rich evidence about the development of the American states from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this book documents the mechanisms through which geographical and historical conditions - such as climate, access to water transportation, and early legal systems - impacted political and judicial institutions and economic growth. The book shows how a state's geography and climate influenced whether elites based their wealth in agriculture or trade. States with more occupationally diverse elites in 1860 had greater levels of political competition in their legislature from 1866 to 2000. The book also examines the effects of early legal systems. Because of their colonial history, thirteen states had an operational civil-law legal system prior to statehood. All of these states except Louisiana would later adopt common law. By the late eighteenth century, the two legal systems differed in their balances of power. In civil-law systems, judiciaries were subordinate to legislatures, whereas in common-law systems, the two were more equal. Former civil-law states and common-law states exhibit persistent differences in the structure of their courts, the retention of judges, and judicial budgets. Moreover, changes in court structures, retention procedures, and budgets occur under very different conditions in civil-law and common-law states. The Evolution of a Nation illustrates how initial geographical and historical conditions can determine the evolution of political and legal institutions and long-run growth.

Full Product Details

Author:   Daniel Berkowitz ,  Karen B. Clay
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.485kg
ISBN:  

9780691136042


ISBN 10:   0691136041
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   21 November 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Legal Initial Conditions 16 Chapter Three: Initial Conditions and State Political Competition 60 Chapter Four: The Mechanism 92 Chapter Five: State Courts 133 Chapter Six: Legislatures and Courts 169 Chapter Seven: Institutions and Outcomes 192 References 203 Index 223

Reviews

In this book, economists Berkowitz and Clay use variation across U.S. states as a sort of historical economic laboratory. Drawing on a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data sources, they lay out and document the connections among a number of geographic and climatic characteristics and the extent of political competition that emerged in each state... This is an important contribution to the literature on institutional economics, economic history, and economic development. Choice


In this book, economists Berkowitz and Clay use variation across U.S. states as a sort of historical economic laboratory. Drawing on a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data sources, they lay out and document the connections among a number of geographic and climatic characteristics and the extent of political competition that emerged in each state... This is an important contribution to the literature on institutional economics, economic history, and economic development. Choice Berkowitz and Clay deserve considerable credit for taking up the difficult challenge of applying the ES (Engerman-Sokoloff) and AJR (Acemoglu-Johnson-Robinson) approach to the experience of U.S. states. Certainly anyone else contemplating something similar will need to study this book very carefully because they will have to grapple with some of the same issues faced by the authors. The book is timely, well written, and the authors have amassed an interesting body of data. -- Robert A. Margo EH.Net


Author Information

Daniel Berkowitz is professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Karen B. Clay is associate professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University.

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