How well do institutional theories explain firms perceptions of property rights?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ayyagari, Meghana; Demirguec-Kunt, Asli; Maksimovic, Vojislav
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; The World Bank; George Washington University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhl032
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1833
• 关键词: growth; LAW; OWNERSHIP

摘要

We examine how well several institutional- and firm-level factors explain firms' perceptions of property rights protection. The institutional theories we investigate account for approximately 50% of the country-level variation, indicating that current research addresses first-order factors. Firm-level characteristics, such as legal organization and ownership structure, are comparable with institutional factors in explaining variations in property rights protection. A country's legal origin predicts property rights variation better than its religion, ethnic fractionalization, or natural endowments. However, these results are driven by the inclusion of former Socialist economies in the sample. When we exclude the former Socialist economies, legal origin explains considerably less than ethnic fractionalization does.