Religious leaders and rule of law

Autor: Sultan Mehmood, Avner Seror
Přispěvatelé: New Economic School of Moscow (NSE), Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques (AMSE), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Oxford Policy Management, under the Economic Development and Institutions (EDI) research program, ANR-17-EURE-0020,AMSE (EUR),Aix-Marseille School of Economics(2017), ANR-11-IDEX-0001,Amidex,INITIATIVE D'EXCELLENCE AIX MARSEILLE UNIVERSITE(2011)
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Development Economics
Journal of Development Economics, 2023, 160, pp.102974. ⟨10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102974⟩
ISSN: 0304-3878
DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102974
Popis: International audience; In this paper, we provide systematic evidence of how historical religious institutions affect the rule of law. In a difference-in-differences framework, we show that districts in Pakistan where the historical presence of religious institutions is higher, rule of law is worse. This deterioration is economically significant, persistent, and likely explained by religious leaders gaining political office. We explain these findings with a model where religious leaders leverage their high legitimacy to run for office and subvert the Courts. We test for and find no evidence supporting several competing explanations: the rise of secular wealthy landowners, dynastic political leaders and changes in voter attitudes are unable to account for the patterns in the data. Our estimates indicate that religious leaders expropriate rents through the legal system amounting to about 0.06 percent of GDP every year.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: