Legal Finance

Law and Finance:
Why Does Legal Origin Matter?
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt and Ross Levine

First Draft: May 2002
This Draft: November 2002

Abstract: New research suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain
differences in financial development. This paper empirically assesses two theories of why legal origin
influences financial development. First, the “political” channel stresses that (i) legal traditions differ
in the priority they give to the rights of individual investors vis-à-vis the state and (ii) this has
repercussions for the development of property rights and financial markets. Second, the
“adaptability” channel holds that (i) legal traditions differ in their ability to adjust to changing
commercial circumstances and (ii) legal systems that adapt quickly to minimize the gap between the
contracting needs of the economy and the legal system’s capabilities will foster financial
development more effectively than would more rigid legal traditions. We use historical comparisons
and cross-country regressions to assess the validity of these two channels. We find that legal origin
matters for financial development because legal traditions differ in their ability to adapt efficiently to
evolving economic conditions.

Keywords: Law; Financial Development
JEL Classification: G2, K2, K4, O16, P5

Beck (MSN MC 3-300) and Demirgüç-Kunt: World Bank, Washington, DC 20433 (tbeck@worldbank.org and
ademirguckunt@worldbank.org respectively), Levine: Carlson School of Management, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (rlevine@csom.umn.edu). We thank Pam Gill for excellent research
assistance. We thank without implicating Daron Acemoglu, Maria Carkovic, Simeon Djankov, Tim Guinnane,
Simon Johnson, Paul Mahoney, Richard Messick, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Andrei Shleifer, and two
anonymous referees. Parts of this paper were originally part of a working paper titled “Law, Politics, and
Finance,” which was a background paper for the 2002 World Development Report. This paper’s findings,
interpretations, and conclusions are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of
the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

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1. Introduction
A growing body of work suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain

cross-country differences in financial development. La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny

(1998, henceforth LLSV) show that whether a country’s Commercial/Company law is based on

British, French, German, or Scandinavian legal origins is important for explaining the country’s laws

on creditor rights, shareholder rights, and private property rights as well as the country’s level of

bank and stock market development. Subsequent research relates legal institutions to corporate

valuations and ownership concentration (LLSV, 2002a; Himmelberg, Hubbard, and Love, 2002),

firm’s debt maturity structure, access to external finance and growth (Demirguc-Kunt and

Maksimovic, 1998, 1999), cross-firm and cross-industry capital allocation (Wurgler, 2000; Beck and

Levine, 2002; Claessens and Laeven, 2003), the informational efficiency of stock prices (Morck,

Yeung, and Yu, 2000), and financial fragility (Johnson, et al., 2000). Furthermore, Levine (1998,

1999) traces the effect of legal origin on financial development through to long-run economic growth,

suggesting that legal origin influences economic growth by shaping national financial systems.

While LLSV and others show that legal origin explains financial development, the profession

has not empirically explained why legal origin matters. North (1988), for instance, argues that

Britain has better institutions than France does. According to this view, British colonies are likely to

inherit better institutions than French colonies with positive ramifications on financial development.

Thus, legal origin may proxy for institutions that are not fundamentally related to the legal system.

Similarly, Stulz and Williamson (2003) note that British origin countries are primarily Protestant,

while French origin countries are overwhelmingly Catholic. They argue that legal origin proxies for

religious and cultural differences that influence financial development and that differences in legal

tradition, per se, are not crucial for explaining current levels of financial development. Beck,

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Demirguc-Kunt and Levine (2003), however, show that legal origin remains robustly linked with

financial development when controlling for religious composition and other national characteristics.1

While legal origin is robustly linked with financial development, the literature has not shown the

channels via which legal origin shapes finance. Consequently, this paper (1) discusses and

empirically assesses two theories of why legal origin matters for financial development and (2)

assesses whether legal origin explains financial development only through these two channels.

Legal theories emphasize two inter-related channels through which legal origin influences

finance. First, the “political” channel contends that (a) legal traditions differ in terms of the priority

they attach to private property rights versus the rights of the State and (b) the protection of private

contracting rights forms the basis of financial development (LLSV, 1999). According to this view,

the English common law evolved to protect private property owners against the crown. This

facilitated the ability of private property owners to transact confidently, with positive repercussions

on financial development (North and Weingast, 1989). In contrast, the political channel holds that

the French and German civil codes in the 19th century were constructed to solidify State power by

placing the “prince above the law” (Hayek, 1960, 166-7).2 Over time, State dominance of the

judiciary produced legal traditions that focus more on the power of the State and less on the rights of

individual investors [Mahoney, 2001]. More generally, the political channel stresses that the civil

law tradition promotes the development of institutions that advance State power with adverse

implications on financial development. Thus, the political channel highlights the degree to which the

State controls the judiciary and emphasizes the difference between common and civil law countries.

Second, the “adaptability” channel stresses that (a) legal traditions differ in their ability to

evolve with changing conditions (Hayek, 1960) and (b) legal traditions that adapt efficiently to

minimize the gap between the contracting needs of the economy and the legal system’s capabilities

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will more effectively foster financial development than more rigid systems (Merryman, 1985). An

influential, though not unanimous, strand of the comparative law literature holds that the Common

law evolves efficiently as judges respond case-by-case to unforeseen and changing conditions

(Posner, 1973).3 Several scholars argue that since the Common law grants substantial discretion to

judges, inefficient laws are challenged in the courts and through repeated litigation efficient rules

replace inefficient ones.4 These authors suggest that legal systems that (i) reject jurisprudence – the

law created by judges in the process of solving disputes – and (ii) rely instead on changes in statutory

law will tend to evolve more inefficiently with negative implications for finance.

In a corollary to the adaptability view, Dawson (1968) and Merryman (1996) advance the

“French Deviation” view, which distinguishes many French law countries from France and German

law countries. According to this view, the French Revolution sought to change French law radically

by eliminating jurisprudence. Under Napoleonic legal doctrine, judges simply apply the law; judges

do not interpret the law, the principle of stare decisis is rejected (Merryman, 1996, 111-112).

Dawson (1968) and Merryman (1985, 1996) consider this a radical deviation because prior to the

Revolution, jurisprudence was an important source of French law. Since Napoleonic legal doctrine

did not work well in practice and conflicted with France’s long legal history, the French courts

circumvented the doctrine. “What the judges actually did, however, was build a body of law based to

some extent on earlier French law, nourished by French legal scholarship, but built largely through

their own decisions” (Merryman, 1996, 113). Unfortunately for French colonies, “…when the

French exported their system they did not include the information that it really does not work that

way, and they failed to include a blueprint of how it actually does work” (Merryman, 1996, 116).

Thus, unlike France, many French civil law colonies have been unable to shake off the shackles of

the Napoleonic doctrine. Critically, Germany explicitly rejected the French deviation. Building on

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Savigny’s vision of legal science, Germany accepted the need for jurisprudence and sought to create

a responsive legal doctrine. Adopters of the German code, therefore, obtained a legal system

specifically designed to evolve with changing conditions. According to this corollary, many French

civil law countries will have more rigid legal systems and therefore support financial development

less effectively than German civil law countries, Common law countries, and France itself.

While the political and adaptability channels are inter-related parts of the law and finance

theory and while they both predict that legal origin shapes financial development, they emphasize

different mechanisms. The political channel focuses on the power of the State. Legal traditions that

strengthen the power of the State relative to private property rights tend to hinder the development of

free, competitive financial markets. In contrast, the adaptability channel focuses on the process of

law making. Legal traditions that efficiently adapt to changing conditions, by eliminating inefficient

laws and creating more efficient ones, support financial development to a greater degree than more

rigid legal systems. Of course, legal origin may operate through both channels; the political and

adaptability channels are not mutually exclusive. We empirically assess the importance of each

channel in accounting for cross-country differences in financial development.

Although there are differences between the political and adaptability channels, they are inter-

connected parts of the law and finance approach to financial development and it may not be feasible

to distinguish fully between these two mechanisms. Specifically, the political channel focuses on the

power of the State while the adaptability channel highlights differences in the ability of legal systems

to evolve with changing conditions. Jurisprudence, however, may be much less likely in a system

where the State controls the judiciary than in a system where the judiciary enjoys greater

independence (Damaska, 1986; Glaeser and Shleifer, 2002). This may lead to skepticism regarding

the ability to distinguish the independent effects of the political and adaptability channels. Moreover,

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since we only have imperfect empirical proxies of State control of the judiciary and legal system

adaptability, this aggravates the identification problem. While recognizing these barriers to assessing

the comparative roles of the political and adaptability channels, we continue with our investigation

using the best available data.

This paper is related to recent research on the operation and evolution of legal systems. La

Porta et al. (2002b) shows that the independence of the judiciary and jurisprudence are closely

associated with economic freedom. We, however, focus on the channels through which legal origin

influences finance. In related work, Pistor et al. (2000, 2003) and Keinan (2000) provide detailed

comparisons of the evolution of statutory corporate law and the law on secured transactions in key

countries. In contrast, our paper uses broad cross-country regressions to assess whether legal

tradition shapes finance primarily by affecting the power of the State relative to the judiciary or

primarily by influencing the adaptability of the law to evolving conditions. Finally, Djankov et al.

(2003) collects detailed data on the operation of legal systems. They examine the link between legal

origin and the operation of legal systems and assess the association between the operation of legal

systems and corruption. We exploit data constructed by La Porta et al. (2000b) and Djankov et al.

(2003) to form proxies of (i) the power of the State over the judiciary and (ii) the degree of legal

system adaptability and then study whether legal origin influences finance through the political and

adaptability channels. Specifically, we use legal origin dummy variables as instrumental variables,

compute the exogenous component of State control over the judiciary and legal system adaptability,

and assess through which channel legal origin influences financial development.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Based on the comparative law literature,

section 2 discusses the political and adaptability channels. Section 3 describes the data and section 4

presents the results from cross-country regressions. Section 5 concludes.

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2. The Political and Adaptability Channels of the Law and Finance Theory

2.1. The Political Channel: Historical Background

In the sixth century, Emperor Justinian had Roman law compiled. Hayek (1960) notes that

the Justinian texts represent an important break with Roman law. While Roman law placed the law

above all individuals, the Justinian texts place the emperor above the law.

From the 1400s, France’s legal system progressed as a regionally diverse mélange of

customary law, Justinian’s legal texts, and judicial decisions. Further, by the 18th century, the

judiciary’s reputation had deteriorated as the monarch sold judgeships to rich families. These

families used their control of the courts to impede progressive reform and support their own interests.

Unsurprisingly, the French Revolution turned its fury on the judiciary and moved to eliminate

the role of the judge in making and interpreting the law. Robespierre even argued that, “the word

jurisprudence … must be effaced from our language.” (Dawson, 1968, p. 426). France sought liberty

and progressive reform by creating a strong legislature and by limiting judicial independence.

Consequently, in codifying the Code, Napoleon – like Justinian – (a) unified regional legal systems

and (b) placed the State above the courts. Thus, codification supported the unification and

strengthening of the government and relegated judges to a relatively minor bureaucratic role.

Like Napoleon, Bismarck unified Germany and its legal systems through codification.

Although Bavaria and Prussia codified parts of the law during the 18th century, it was Bismarck’s

decision in 1873 to codify and unify the whole of private law in Germany that led to the adoption of

the German civil law in 1900. Thus, according to the political channel, Bismarck’s codification –

like Justinian and Napoleon before him – consolidated and strengthened the state.

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The history of the English common law is very different. The English common law attained

its modern form in the tumultuous 16th and 17th centuries when Parliament and the English kings

battled for control of the country. The Crown attempted to reassert feudal prerogatives and sell

monopolies to raise revenues. Parliament (composed mostly of landowners and wealthy merchants),

together with the courts took the side of property owners. Ultimately, the Crown was unable to

reassert feudal privileges and its ability to grant monopolies was also severely restricted. The courts

asserted that the law is king and limited the Crown’s discretion to alter property rights. Thus, in

comparison with France during the 16th and 17th centuries, the English common law was a source of

liberty and a champion of private property rights.

2.2. The Political Channel

The political channel holds that (i) legal traditions differ in their emphasis on the rights of

private property owners vis-à-vis the rights of the State and (ii) private property rights form the basis

of financial development. Thus, historically determined differences in legal origin help explain

existing differences in financial development (LLSV, 1998).

The political channel argues that the Civil law has tended to emphasize the rights of the State,

rather than private property rights, to a greater degree than the common law with adverse

implications for financial development. Indeed, LLSV (1999, 231-2) state that, “(A) civil legal

tradition, then, can be taken as a proxy for an intent to build institutions to further the power of the

State...” A powerful State will tend to create policies and institutions that divert the flow of society’s

resources toward favored ends, which is antithetical to competitive financial markets. Furthermore, a

powerful State with a responsive civil law at its disposal will have difficulty credibly committing to

not interfere in financial markets, which will also hinder financial development.

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In contrast, the political channel argues that the Common law historically stood on the side of

private property owners against the State. Rather than becoming a tool of the State, the Common law

has acted as a powerful counterbalance that has promoted private property rights. Thus, according to

the political channel, the common law’s comparative emphasis on private property rights relative to

the State tends to support financial development to a greater degree than the civil law.5

2.3. The Adaptability Channel: Historical Background

Not only did Justinian’s codification break with the Roman law tradition by placing the

emperor above the law; Justinian also broke with the Roman law tradition by attempting to eliminate

jurisprudence. Roman law had evolved from a law for a small community of farmers to support the

needs of an imperial city through piecemeal case-made law over many centuries. Justinian attempted

to change this doctrine and “… asserted for himself a monopoly, not only over all law-making power,

but over legal interpretation.” (Dawson, 1968, p. 122) Nevertheless, this “Justinian deviation” did

not take root; jurisprudence continued to shape the law. Thus, an essential attribute of Europe’s legal

tradition, including that in Germany and pre-Revolutionary France, is that it is dynamic, unfinished,

and changing (Dawson, 1960; 1968).

In pre-Revolutionary France, judge-made law was an important source of law. Clearly courts

must have weighed and debated the appropriate application of conflicting Roman law, customary

law, and case law as new circumstances and cases emerged. Yet, from the 14th century onward,

judicial deliberations occurred in comparative secrecy. Historically and still today, French courts

give remarkably cryptic explanations of their decisions when compared to German or British courts

(Dawson, 1968, p. 286-311).

As noted above, the French Revolution sought to make the law judge-free (Merryman, 1996).

The theory underlying the French legal doctrine is that the legislature drafts laws without gaps, so

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judges do not make law by deciding cases. The theory is that the legislature does not draft conflicting

laws, so judges do not make law by choosing among competing statutes. The theory is that the

legislature provides clear laws, so judges do not make law by giving practical meaning to ambiguous

laws. The theory is that judges play a mechanical role. Like Justinian, Napoleon sought a code that

was so clear, complete, and coherent that there would be no need for judges to deliberate publicly

about which laws, customs, and past experiences apply to new situations.

While Revolutionaries sought to eliminate jurisprudence, Merryman (1985, 1996) argues that

the French have found ways to circumvent many of the inefficient qualities of the Napoleonic

doctrine over the last two centuries. Indeed, the lead draftsmen of the Code recognized that the

legislature could not draft complete, fully consistent, and comprehensive codes. Practitioners

recognized that the legislature could not revise the Code sufficiently rapidly to handle efficiently the

myriad of changing problems that arise in a dynamic nation. Consequently, in contrast to doctrine,

the French courts eventually built an entire body of tort law on the basis of Article 1382 of the Code

Napoleon that states that one whose act injures another must compensate that person. In contrast to

doctrine, French courts have recently used case law to recast the law of unjust enrichment, alter the

law on obligations, re-work the law of contract regarding gifts, and change the system of

administrative law (Dawson, 1968, 400-415). Thus, Merryman (1985, 1996) argues that the

Napoleonic doctrine is a “deviation” from two thousand years of legal tradition built on jurisprudence

and judicial discretion.

According to Merryman (1996), however, the exportation of the Napoleonic doctrine has

crippled the judicial systems of many French Civil code colonies and reduced the probability that

they would develop efficiently adaptive legal systems. There are four inter-related reasons for this

assertion. First, the French, unlike the English, rigidly imposed the Code Civil in its colonies even

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though there were – and remain -- serious conflicts between the Code and local laws (ZK, 1998, 109-

13; henceforth ZK).6 Tensions between local law and the transferred doctrine may impede the

efficient development and application of the law.7 Second, when the French instilled the Code, they

brought the theory of the Napoleonic doctrine with its antagonism toward judges, jurisprudence, and

judicial discretion. They did not also bring the practical knowledge of how to circumvent some of

the negative attributes of the Code and reinstall an efficient role for judges. Third, given the

Napoleonic doctrine, judges “… are at the bottom of the scale of prestige among the legal professions

in France and in many nations that adopted the French Revolutionary reforms, and the best people in

those nations accordingly seek other legal careers” (Merryman, 1996, p. 116). Consequently, it is

more difficult to develop efficiently responsive legal systems if the courts do not attract the best

minds. Fourth, France has a long history of avoiding open disputes about legal interpretation

(Dawson, 1968). Moreover, Napoleonic doctrine formally inhibits open disputations by judges on

how they weigh competing statutes, ambiguous laws, and past court decisions in deciding new cases.

The exportation of this characteristic to French Civil code colonies, i.e., the absence of a legal culture

of openly discussing the application of the law to evolving conditions, hindered the development of

efficient legal systems around the world according to this view. In sum, many argue that French

Civil code colonies inherited a restrictive legal doctrine under particular conditions that enhance the

probability that their legal system will be less flexible than Common and German civil law countries.

The comparative law literature notes that German legal history is very different from

France’s. Unlike in France, from the 16th century, German courts published comprehensive

deliberations that illustrated how courts weighed conflicting statutes, resolved ambiguities, and

tackled new situations (Dawson, 1968). Law faculties at universities worked directly with courts to

decide cases and then worked to rationalize reality with the logic of the Justinian texts. Through

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active debate and interchange between scholars and practitioners, Germany developed a dynamic,

common fund of legal ideas that formed the basis for codification in the 19th century.

In contrast to the revolutionary zeal and antagonism toward judges that shaped the Napoleonic

Code, Germany explicitly rejected the static approach adopted by the French. Unlike the French

Code, the German Code “was not intended to abolish prior law and substitute a new legal system. On

the contrary, the idea was to codify those principles of German law that would emerge from careful

historical study of the German legal system.” (Merryman, 1985, p. 31) The German civil code

embraced the need for jurisprudence in creating a responsive, flexible legal system.

The English common law tradition is almost synonymous with judges having broad

interpretation powers and with courts molding and creating law as circumstances change. The

common law is obsessed with facts and deciding concrete cases, rather than adhering to the logical

principles of codified law. Thus, the popular dictum: “The life of the law has not been logic: it has

been experience.” (ZK, 1998, p. 181). Unlike the Napoleonic doctrine, judges continually – and as a

matter of general practice -- shape the law through their decisions.

2.4. The Adaptability Channel

The adaptability channel is built on two basic premises. First, to the extent that a legal system

adapts slowly, large gaps will appear between financial needs and the legal system’s ability to

support those needs. Second, the major legal traditions differ in terms of their ability to adapt to

changing financial circumstances.

According to the adaptability channel, legal systems that embrace case law and judicial

discretion tend to be more responsive to changing economic conditions than legal systems that rely

more strictly on judgments based purely on statutory law (Posner, 1973). Inefficient laws are

challenged in the courts and “... through the process of litigation and re-litigation inefficient rules will

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be replaced by efficient rules” (Pistor et al., 60, 2000; See Rubin, 1977; Priest, 1977). In contrast,

legal systems that reject jurisprudence necessarily rely more on statutory law changes to modernize

and adapt the law. A large legal literature, however, argues that statutory law is slow and costly to

change, so that the absence of jurisprudence tends to hinder the efficiency with which laws adapt to

changing conditions (Bailey and Rubin, 1994).8

The adaptability channel predicts that French legal origin countries, albeit not necessarily

France itself, have a lower probability of having an efficiently flexible legal system than German

civil law and especially Common law countries.

The first and main argument focuses on jurisprudence and not adhering too rigidly to statutory

law. The adaptability channel holds that the Common law is inherently dynamic as it responds case-

by-case to the changing needs of society. This limits the opportunities for large gaps to grow

between the demands of society and the law. In contrast, the Napoleonic doctrine’s distrust of judges

and jurisprudence has hindered the flexibility of the legal system in many French law countries, with

adverse implications on financial development. Furthermore, many legal scholars argue that the

German law falls close to the Common law in terms of adaptability since it rejected the Napoleonic

doctrine and instead maintained its historical roots in jurisprudence and judicial discretion. As noted,

Merryman (1985) argues that France did not adhere to its legal doctrine and instead re-instilled

jurisprudence. French Civil code colonies were not so lucky, however. When the French rigidly

imposed the Code, they imposed the Napoleonic doctrine and did not necessarily include a blueprint

of how it actually should work. According to this view, French civil law countries have a lower

probability of enjoying an efficiently flexible legal system than Common or German civil law

countries.

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Two other characteristics of French law may also work to inhibit the efficient responsiveness

of the law to changing financial conditions, especially in former French Civil code colonies. First,

Dawson (1968) emphasizes that extensive deliberations about interpreting the law have been key

characteristics of German legal history and an inherent part of the Common law, but France has

historically exhibited a dislike of open judicial disputations. Furthermore, the Napoleonic doctrine

that was exported internationally prohibits these disputations. According to the adaptability channel,

legal cultures that discourage open deliberations about the applicability and interpretation of the law

will hinder the development of efficiently dynamic legal systems.

Second, Merryman (1996, p. 116) argues that the most powerful consequence of the

Napoleonic doctrine “… may have been to demean judges and the judicial functions.” According to

the Napoleonic doctrine, judges served a mainly clerical function. Thus, in France and French law

countries, recruiting practices, salaries, and prestige frequently reflect this perspective. According to

this view, the Napoleonic doctrine became self-fulfilling: the best minds chose other professions,

which hindered efficient legal flexibility. As a consequence, the legislature will have a tendency to

write “bright line laws” to limit the role of the courts. “Once this pattern of lawmaking has been

established, however, it is hard to change” (Pistor et al., 2000, 62). Courts will not be challenged to

develop legal procedures and methods to deal with emerging conditions. Thus, according to some

scholars, these characteristics of the French law have worked to retard the development of efficiently

adaptive legal systems that support financial development.

2.5 An Aside on France vs. Germany

Though not central to our analysis, some scholars emphasize the greater adaptability of the

German relative to French law beyond former French colonies.9 Consider for instance the

assignment of contracts. Roman law started from the position that personal rights could not be

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transferred. Over the centuries, customary law in (what is now) Germany evolved to support a wide

range of financial assignments as transferability of financial claims became an important part of

commercial arrangements. Ultimately, the courts held that assignment was complete once the

assignor and assignee agreed. In both Germany and the United Kingdom, the principle of assignment

was developed by court decisions before it was codified into the German BGB (1900) and the UK’s

Judicature Act (1873). In French law, however, the assignment is only treated as complete if the

original debtor is notified, which has potentially negative implications for asset transferability. While

the French legislature has revised certain statutes to circumvent the obsolete rules contained in the

Code, the more flexible structure of the German and Common law allowed business to more

efficiently assign debts (ZK, 135; 442-455, 1998). A similar pattern of jurisprudence is found in the

law on contracts for the benefit of third parties, e.g., insurance contracts, annuity arrangements, etc.

(ZK, 456-469). Interestingly, the German courts used the law regarding third parties to fill gaps in

tort law during the twentieth century, which further illustrates the flexibility of German courts.

Similarly, it was the German courts, not the legislature that took the lead in affording protection

against unfair conditions of business during the 20th century. As noted by ZK (1998, 336), “What we

have here is judge-made law of the purest kind.” While typical in Common law courts and Germany,

some argue that this type of judge-made law would be considered more aberrant in a French system.

2.6. Differences between the Political and Adaptability Channels

The political and the adaptability channels make conflicting predictions. First, they provide

conflicting predictions regarding French versus German civil law countries. The political channel

holds that the Civil law tradition – both French and German – tends to centralize and intensify state

power and therefore takes a more wary stance toward the development of free financial systems than

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the Common law. In contrast, the adaptability channel stresses that Common law and German civil

law countries have notably more adaptable legal traditions than French civil law countries.10

Second and more importantly for our purposes, the two channels make different predictions

concerning the mechanism through which legal systems influence the development of financial

markets. The political channel contends that State control of the judiciary produces a system that

focuses more on the power of the State and less on the private contracting rights of individual

investors than a legal system characterized by an independent judiciary. Thus, the political channel

stresses that cross-country differences in the independence of the judiciary are critical for explaining

cross-country differences in financial development. In contrast, the adaptability channel stresses that

cross-country differences in the flexibility of the law are critical for explaining cross-country

differences in financial development. We empirically assess these hypotheses below.

3. Data

We use cross-country analyses to assess the empirical validity of the political and adaptability

channels. We examine a sample of up to 115 countries with French Civil, German Civil,

Scandinavian Civil and British Common Law origins. Due to data limitations on the political and

adaptability indicators, however, the sample is reduced to 54 countries in some of the regressions.

Our data include origin countries, which raises the question of endogeneity. Berkowitz et al.

(2002) stress the difference between legal origin countries - U.K, U.S., France, Germany, Austria,

Switzerland and the five Scandinavian countries – which formed legal traditions, and the transplant

countries, which received the legal traditions. This is less of an issue in our analysis since the legal

origin variables are primarily used as instrumental variables and we use specification tests to assess

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the validity of the instruments. Nevertheless, we have confirmed all of the results in the paper using

a smaller sample of countries that eliminates the eleven countries listed above.

To assess the political and adaptability channels empirically, we need indicators of financial

development, legal origin, State power over the judiciary, and the adaptability of a legal system. We

describe these variables in turn. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and correlations.

3.1. Financial Development

To measure financial development, we use indicators of financial intermediary development,

stock market development, and the protection of property rights. There is no single, universally

accepted measure of financial development. As noted in Levine (1997), financial systems arise to

mitigate information and transaction costs and thereby enhance the allocation of capital. Different

types and combinations of information, enforcement, and transaction costs in conjunction with

different legal, regulatory, and tax systems have motivated distinct financial contracts, markets, and

intermediaries across countries and throughout history. Since there are different ways to organize

financial systems – sometimes through banks, sometimes through markets, sometimes through

private contracts – we use three alternative but complementary measures of financial development.

We use the same indicators as in Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine (2003).

Private Credit equals financial intermediary credits to the private sector divided by gross

domestic product (GDP) and is measured over the 1990-95 period. Private Credit excludes credit to

the public sector and cross claims of one group of intermediaries on another. It thus measures the

amount of savings that is channeled through debt-issuing financial intermediaries to private

borrowers. King and Levine (1993a,b) and Levine, Loayza, and Beck (2000) show a strong

connection between measures of banking sector development and economic growth. The summary

statistics in Table 1 shows a wide variation in Private Credit, ranging from over 140% of GDP in the

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United States, the Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland to less than 5% in Sudan, Ghana, Guinea,

Sierra Leone, Uganda, Angola, and Congo (Zaire).

Stock Market Development equals the total value of outstanding equity shares as a fraction

of GDP and is averaged over the 1990-95 period. This measures the overall size of the equity market

relative to the size of the economy. Levine and Zervos (1998) and Beck and Levine (2003) show that

stock market development is positively associated with economic growth even after controlling for

the level of banking sector development. Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine (2003) note that equity

market transactions tend to rely more than banking institutions on well-functioning legal systems to

defend the rights of individual investors. From this perspective, we may expect to find a closer

connection between legal origin and stock market development than between legal origin and

banking sector development. While Malaysia has a market capitalization of 189% of GDP, there are

42 countries in our sample with no measurable stock market activity.

Property Rights is an index of the degree to which the government protects private property

and enforces laws that protect private property. The data are for 1997 and were obtained from LLSV

(1999) and the Index of Economic Freedom. While Private Credit and Stock Market Development are

direct measures of the size of financial intermediaries and equity markets, Property Rights measures a

key input into the efficient operation of financial contracts and the development of formal financial

institutions: the degree of protection of private property rights. The maximum value of Property

Rights is five, while one indicates the weakest property rights protection. Twenty-five countries have

the highest degree of property right protection, while three countries have little or no protection at all

(Property Rights equals one).

18

The correlation matrix in Table 1, Panel B shows that all three measures of financial

development are highly correlated with each other. The lowest correlation coefficient is 0.52 and the

correlations are significant at the 1 per cent level.

3.2. Legal Origin

Through occupation, colonization and imitation, the British, French and German legal origin

spread around the world. Napoleon made it a priority to secure the adoption of the Code in all

conquered territories, including Italy, Poland, the Low Countries, and the Habsburg Empire. Also,

France extended her legal influence to parts of the Near East, Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa,

Indochina, Oceania, French Guyana, and the French Caribbean islands during the colonial era.

Furthermore, the French Civil Code was a major influence on the Portuguese and Spanish legal

systems, which helped spread the French legal tradition to Central and South America. The British

exported the Common law through its colonies. The Austrian and Swiss civil codes were developed

at the same time as the German civil code and the three influenced each other heavily. The German

Civil Code was not imposed but exerted a big influence on China (and hence Taiwan),

Czechoslovakia, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Korea, and Yugoslavia.

We use data from LLSV (1998, 1999) that identifies legal origin of each country’s

Company/Commercial Law. Thus, the British Legal Origin dummy variable equals one if the

country adopted its Company/Commercial law from the British Common Law and zero otherwise. A

similar rule is followed for the other legal origin dummies. Our sample comprises 43 countries with

British Common Law, 61 countries with French Civil Law, six countries with German Civil Law and

five Scandinavian Civil Law countries. The correlation analysis indicates that countries with French

Civil Law have significantly lower levels of Private Credit, Stock Market Development and Property

19

Rights than countries with German, Scandinavian, or British legal origins. German legal origin

countries have higher levels of financial development.

3.3. Indicators of the Political Channel

Our two indicators of the relative power of the judiciary vis-à-vis the executive and legislature

are from La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Pop-Eleches, and Shleifer (2002b).

Tenure of Supreme Court Judges ranges from zero to two, increasing in the tenure of the

Supreme Court judges. If tenure is for less than six years, then this variable is coded as zero. If

tenure is between six years and lifelong, then the Tenure of Supreme Courts Judges variable is coded

as one. If Supreme Court judges have lifelong tenure, then the variable is coded as two. In a legal

system that grants tenure to Supreme Court judges, this increases the independence of the judiciary

relative to the State. According to the political channel, (a) Civil law countries are less likely to grant

tenure to judges than Common law countries and (b) larger values of Tenure of Supreme Court

Judges will be positively associated with financial development.

The correlations are not fully consistent with the political channel’s predictions (Table 1).

While countries with a British common law tradition are more likely to grant Supreme Court judges

longer tenure than French civil law countries, there is not a significant correlation between German

legal origin and the Tenure of Supreme Court judges. Furthermore, Tenure of Supreme Court Judges

is not significantly correlated with the financial development indicators.

Supreme Court Power combines the tenure of Supreme Court Judges with a dummy

variable indicating whether the Supreme Court has power over administrative cases, i.e. cases

involving the government. Thus, Supreme Court Power equals one if (1) Supreme Court Judges have

lifelong tenure and (2) the Supreme Courts has power over administrative cases and equals zero if

either of these two conditions does not hold. To the extent that the Supreme Court is independent of

20

the government as measured by lifelong tenure and has control over cases involving the government,

this represents greater judicial power relative to the State. The political channel predicts that Supreme

Court judges who have life-long tenure and power over administrative cases are more independent

from the State, with positive repercussions for financial and institutional development.

The correlations indicate that British legal origin countries have the highest levels of judicial

independence while French civil law countries have the lowest levels of Supreme Court Power.

There is not a significant relationship between German legal heritage and Supreme Courts Power.

Supreme Court Power is not significantly correlated with the financial development indicators.

3.4. Indicators of the Adaptability Channel

We use two variables indicating the extent to which judicial decisions are based (i) on

previous court decisions and (ii) on principles of equity rather than on statutory law.

Case Law (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Pop-Eleches, and Shleifer, 2002b) is a dummy

variable that indicates whether judicial decisions are a source of law. The adaptability channel

predicts that (a) Common law and German civil law countries are more likely to admit judicial

decisions as a source of law than French civil law countries and (b) countries in which judicial

decision are a source of law will adapt more easily to changing economic and financial circumstances

and therefore have higher levels of financial development. Unsurprisingly, British common law

countries have high levels of Case Law, while French civil law countries tend not to include judicial

decisions as a source of law.

Legal Justification (Djankov, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes and Shleifer, 2003) indicates

whether judgments have to be based on statutory law rather than on principles of equity. 11 Legal

Justification takes on values of 0, 0.33, 0.67, and 1, where higher values signify the legal system

imposes greater requirements that judgments be based on statutory law. Consistent with the

21

adaptability channel, many British Common law legal systems (e.g., Australia, Canada, Ghana, New

Zealand, Malaysia, United Kingdom, and United States) have comparatively low Legal Justification

requirements (e.g., values of 0 or 0.33), where practically all French civil law countries have Legal

Justification requirements of either 0.67 or 1. The adaptability channel predicts that higher values of

Legal Justification will be associated with lower levels of financial development.

The Table 1, Panel B correlations are broadly, though certainly not overwhelmingly,

consistent with the adaptability channel. Greater adaptability is measured by higher values of Case

Law, and lower values of Legal Justification. First, British legal origin countries have the most

adaptable legal systems and French legal origin countries have the least adaptable legal systems.

There is not a significant correlation between the German legal origin dummy and either of the

adaptability indicators. Second, the adaptability indicators are generally significantly correlated with

financial development. That is, greater adaptability is positively associated with financial

development. Third, as suggested in the Introduction, the adaptability indicators are significantly

correlated with the political power indicators.

3.5. Other Possible Determinants of Financial Development

To assess the robustness of our results, we include several other potential determinants of

financial development in our empirical analysis. Latitude equals the absolute value of the latitude of

the country to control for geographic endowments. We take the data from LLSV (1999). In previous

work (Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine, 2003) we have shown that Latitude helps explain financial

development.12 Independence equals the fraction of years since 1776 that the country has been

independent. We include this since a longer period of independence may provide greater

opportunities for countries to develop institutions, policies, and regulations that are conducive to open

and competitive financial markets.

22

4. Cross-Country Regressions

This section presents the results from cross-country regressions to assess (1) the importance of

legal origin in explaining cross-country variance in financial development, (2) the ability of legal

origin to explain cross-country differences in the political and adaptability indicators, and (3) the

ability of the exogenous component of the political and the adaptability channels to account for cross-

country differences in financial development.

4.1. Legal Origin and Finance

The results in Table 2 show that distinguishing countries by legal origin helps explain cross-

country differences in financial intermediary development, stock market development, and the degree

of private property rights protection. This finding was first documented by LLSV (1998) and

recently confirmed with additional robustness checks (Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine, 2003).

Even after controlling for geographic endowments and the length of national independence, the legal

origin dummies enter jointly significantly in all regressions at the 1%-level. Also, note that Latitude

and Independence both enter significantly and positively in most of the regressions.

The results also indicate that French legal origin countries, on average, have substantially

lower levels of financial development than German civil law and British common law countries. The

superscript “F” on the British legal origin dummy variable indicates that the British legal origin

dummy is significantly different from the French legal origin dummy. Similarly, the “B” on the

French legal origin dummy, indicates that the French dummy is significantly different from the

British Common law dummy, and so forth. As shown, the British legal origin dummy is always

significantly larger than the French dummy and the German dummy is significantly greater than the

23

French dummy in all regressions except one. In half of the regressions, the German and British legal

dummies are not statistically different from each other, while the German legal dummy is

significantly greater in the other three regressions. This occurs particularly when using the financial

development indicator most closely associated with bank development, Private Credit.

These findings are broadly consistent with the adaptability channel. Recall, the political

channel focuses on the difference between the Common law and the Civil law. Thus, the political

channel does not predict that German civil law countries will have higher levels of financial

development than French civil law countries. The adaptability channel focuses on the distinctly static

nature of the French civil law, relative to both the British common and German civil law traditions.

Thus, the adaptability channel is consistent with the finding the French civil law countries have

notably lower levels of financial development than the other legal families. These results, however,

do not reject the political channel since legal origin may operate through both channels.

4.2. Legal Origin and the Political and the Adaptability Channels

Table 3 assesses whether legal origin explains cross-country differences in the indicators that

we use to define the political and adaptability channels. Thus, we regress the proxies for the political

and adaptability channels on the legal origin dummy variables. There are four regressions: two

political channel indicators and two adaptability indicators. We report the F-tests of whether the

legal origin dummy variables significantly explain cross-country variation in the political and

adaptability indicators. We also report cross coefficient tests, as in Table 2, of whether the

coefficients on the legal dummies are significantly different from each other.

Legal origin helps explain cross-country variation in the political and adaptability indicators.

The F-test of the joint significance of the origin dummies indicates that legal origin enters all of the

regressions significantly at the 0.01 level.

24

Consistent with the law and finance theory, the Table 3 results indicate that British common

law countries have significantly greater judicial independence (i.e., less State control over the

judiciary) and significantly more adaptable legal systems than French legal origin countries.

Specifically, the tenure of Supreme Court judges and their ability to control administrative cases are

all, on average, greater in British common law countries. Similarly, the use of case law and the

ability to use equity rather than statutory law in making judgments are, on average, greater in British

common law countries.

The Table 3 results are broadly consistent with both the political and adaptability channels.

Consistent with the political channel, the civil law countries have significantly less tenure for

Supreme Court judges and significantly less judicial control over administrative cases than Common

law countries (see the political indicator regressions in Table 3 Panel A), i.e., consistent with the

political channel civil law countries tend to foster the power of the State vis-à-vis the judiciary.

Further, there are no significant differences between French and German Civil law countries.

Consistent with the adaptability channel, the main difference is between French civil law and

British common law countries, not between civil and common law per se. The coefficient on the

German legal origin dummy always lies between the French and British coefficients and is

significantly different from the French value in the case of Case Law. These results broadly confirm

the predictions of the adaptability channel that French civil law countries are less adaptable than both

Common and German Civil Law countries.

4.3 The Political Channel and Financial Development

Table 4 assesses the questions (a) does the exogenous component of the political indicators

explain financial development and (b) does legal origin explain financial development through some

25

other mechanisms besides the political channel. To make this assessment, we use two-stage least

squares regressions with heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors of the following form:

1st Stage: Political Channel Indicator = δ[3 Legal Origin Dummies] + γX + v

2nd Stage: Financial Development = α[Political Channel Indicator] + βX + u

X is a set of exogenous variables that are included in some of the second stage regressions. The error

terms in the first and second stage regressions are v and u, respectively. The three Legal Origin

Dummies are the instrumental variables. Thus, the coefficient on the Political Channel Indicator, α,

provides information on whether State power over the judiciary influences financial development

after controlling for potential endogeneity, thus providing the answer to our first question. The test of

the overidentifying restrictions (OIR) addresses the second question: Does legal origin explain

financial development through some other mechanisms besides the political channel? The null

hypothesis of the OIR test is that the legal origin dummies are not correlated with u.13 Thus, rejection

of the OIR test is a rejection of the view that the legal origin only explains financial development

through the political channel. For the case where the regressions include, X, i.e., the second-stage

includes Latitude and Independence, the OIR test becomes a general specification test of the validity

of the instruments. We include X to assess the robustness of the findings by controlling for other

potential exogenous determinants of financial development.

The results in Table 4 do not support the political channel. First, the indicators of the political

channel do not enter any of the regressions significantly. Second, the OIR-tests are rejected in all

regressions, suggesting that legal origin explains financial development through some mechanism

besides the political channel. While some may view these results as representing an indictment of the

political channel indicators, the legal origin dummies help explain cross-country differences in the

26

political channel indicators in a manner that is consistent with theory (Table 3), but the exogenous

component of the political channel does not explain finance.

4.4 The Adaptability Channel and Financial Development

Table 5 assesses the questions (a) does the exogenous component of the adaptability

indicators explain financial development and (b) does legal origin explain financial development

beyond the adaptability indicators. To make this assessment, we use the same two-stage least squares

methodology described above.

The results in Table 5 provide qualified support for the adaptability channel. First, the

adaptability indicators enter significantly and with the correct sign in 10 of the 12 regressions when

using a 0.05 significance level and in 11 when using a 0.06 significance level. Second, the OIR-test

is not rejected for any of the Stock Market Development regressions. This suggests that the legal

origin dummies do not explain financial market development beyond their ability to explain cross-

country variation in the legal adaptability indicators. Third, the results on Property Rights are mixed.

When controlling for Latitude and Independence, i.e., when controlling for other exogenous

determinants of financial development, the OIR test is not rejected at the 0.05 level. This again

suggests that legal origin does not explain property rights beyond the adaptability indicators.

However, the OIR test is rejected in the property rights regressions when we do not control for

Latitude and Independence. For the Private Credit regressions, the OIR test is always rejected,

suggesting that legal origin explains Private Credit beyond the adaptability indicator. Since we

believe (i) equity market development reflects securities market development more generally and (ii)

securities market development requires more support from the legal system than bank development,

we view these regressions as largely – though not without qualifications – consistent with the

adaptability channel.

27

4.5 The Political and Adaptability Channels and Financial Development

We now examine the political and adaptability channels simultaneously using an extended

version of the instrumental variable procedure described above. Specifically, we estimate the

following regression.

1st Stage: Political Indicator = δ1[3 legal Origin Dummies] + γ1X + v1

1st Stage: Adaptability Indicator = δ2[3 legal Origin Dummies] + γ2X + v2

2nd Stage: Financial Development = α1[Political Indicator] + α2[Adaptability Indicator] + βX + u

Thus, we assess whether the exogenous components of the Political Indicator and the

Adaptability Indicator explain financial development. Since there are two endogenous variables

(Political Indicator and Adaptability Indicator) and three instruments (the three legal origin dummy

variables), there is only one degree of freedom in the OIR test, i.e., the test of whether the instruments

explain financial development beyond their ability to explain the endogenous variables.

To check the robustness of the results discussed below, we experimented with including other

instrumental variables and various X-variables. Specifically, in the case when there are no included

exogenous variables (X is empty), we tried (a) using Latitude and Independence as instrumental

variables and (b) using Latitude and Independence as instrumental variables and also including three

variables measuring each country’s religious composition as instrumental variables (i.e., the

percentage of the population that is Catholic, Muslim, or a non-Protestant religion, so that Protestant

is the omitted category). We get even stronger results than those reported below. Furthermore, we

also included these additional instrumental variables in the second stage, i.e., we included them as X-

variables rather than as pure instruments. Again, we get even stronger results than those reported

below.

Table 6 is organized in the following manner. There are four combinations of Political and

Adaptability indicators for each financial development indicator. Thus, Table 6 reports the results of

28

12 regressions. It also reports the test of the over-identifying restrictions (OIR test), and the F-test

from the first-stage regressions. Table 6 is divided into three panels that report the Private Credit,

Stock Market Development, and Property Rights regressions respectively.

The Table 6 regressions suggest that (1) legal origin explains financial development through

the political and adaptability channels, and not through some third mechanism and (2) the evidence is

more consistent with the adaptability channel than the political channel. In none of the 12 regressions

is the OIR test rejected at the 10 percent level. Thus, we do not reject the null hypothesis that legal

origin only explains financial development through the political and adaptability channels.14

In none of the 12 regressions does the political indicator enter significantly and with the sign

predicted by the political channel. Theory suggests that the political indicators should enter

positively. For instance, greater Tenure for Supreme Court Judges creates greater judicial

independence and greater support for private property vis-à-vis the State and greater support for the

private contractual arrangements underlying financial development. The political indicators

sometimes enter negatively and significantly. This may occur if the predicted components of the

political and adaptability channels are highly correlated. While we obtain the same results when

adding many additional instrumental variables as specified above, we interpret the Table 6 results

cautiously. Note these results do not imply that the political channel is in general unimportant.

Rather, this paper’s results are narrowly focused on assessing whether legal origin explains stock

market development, property rights, and financial intermediary development through the political or

adaptability channels.

The data support for the adaptability channel. The adaptability indicators always enter with

the correct sign. Moreover, they enter significantly (at the 0.05 significance level) in 10 of the 12

29

regressions. For example, Case Law is positively related with Private Credit, Stock Market

Development, and Property Right when controlling for either of the political channel indicators.

We not only find a statistically significant relation between the exogenous component of legal

adaptability and financial development, but also a large economic effect. Take the example of Case

Law. According to the regressions in Table 6, countries in which judicial decisions are a source of

law, have on average 130 percentage points higher levels of Private Credit and 52 percentage points

higher levels of stock market development. Further, property rights protection is rated at least 2.6

points higher – on a five-point scale – in countries with case law.15 This is more than three standard

deviations for Private Credit, more than two standard deviations for Property Rights and more than

one standard deviation for Stock Market Development.

30

5. Conclusions

While past work shows that legal origin helps explain financial development, this paper

examines the mechanisms via which legal origin operates. The law and finance theory emphasizes

two channels. The political channel postulates that legal traditions differ in terms of the priority they

give to private property rights relative to the rights of the State. Since private property rights form

the basis of financial development, historically determined differences in legal origin explain

financial development today. The political channel holds that Civil law systems tend to promote the

development of institutions that advance State power with negative implications for financial

development. The adaptability channel stresses that legal traditions differ in terms of their

responsiveness to changing socioeconomic conditions. Since inflexible legal traditions produce gaps

between legal capabilities and commercial needs, historically determined differences in legal

tradition explain financial development today. The adaptability channel holds that French legal origin

countries are more likely to develop inefficiently rigid legal systems than British Common law and

German civil law countries with adverse repercussions for financial development.

The results provide relatively more evidence for the adaptability channel than for the political

channel. While subject to the qualifications emphasized in the Introduction, we find the following.

First, the exogenous component of legal system adaptability explains cross-country differences in

financial intermediary development, stock market development, and private property rights protection

even when controlling for the political channel. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the view

that legal origin does not explain financial market development beyond legal origin’s ability to

explain cross-country variability in legal system adaptability. Thus, the results suggest that legal

origin matters because legal traditions differ in their ability to adjust efficiently to evolving

socioeconomic conditions. Legal systems that adapt efficiently to minimize the gap between the

31

financial needs of the economy and the legal system’s capabilities will foster financial development

more effectively than more rigid legal systems. Second, the exogenous component of the political

channel does not explain cross-country variation in financial development. Third, German civil law

and British common law countries have significantly better-developed financial intermediaries and

markets and better property right protection than French civil law countries, which is fully consistent

with the adaptability channel. In terms of policy implications, these tentative results advertise the

benefits of efficient legal system adaptability.

32

1
Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine (2003) also confirm Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson’s (2001, 2002) findings that

geographical endowments affect the development of institutions, including financial institutions.
2
Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson too sought to place the State above the judiciary, while John Marshall asserted judicial

independence (Simon, 2002).
3
For countervailing views and modifications, see Cooter and Kornhauser (1980), Cooter, Kornhauser, and Lane (1979),

Blume and Rubinfeld (1982), Rubin (1982), and Kaplow (1992), Coffee (2000).
4
See, for instance, Rubin (1977, 1982), Priest (1977), and Bailey and Rubin (1994).
55
Rajan and Zingales (2003) and Pagan and Volpin (2001) stress that contemporaneous political factors influence

financial markets. The law and finance theory’s political channel is related, though distinct. It stresses that the civil law

has promoted the development of institutions that further the power of the State, which hinders financial development.
6
England did not try to replace Islamic, Hindu, or unwritten African law and the flexibility of the Common law eased its

transfer. For instance, the English courts in India were instructed to apply Islamic or Hindu law depending on the faith of

the parties in cases of inheritance, marriage, caste, etc. In Africa, judges were to apply the English law only to the extent

that local circumstances permitted and matters were to be decided by equity and good conscience as rendered necessary

by local circumstances (ZK, 1998, 225-9). While somewhat chaotic, this arguably set the stage for the evolution of an

independent, dynamic common law in the post-colonial era.
7
For an insightful analysis of the transfer of the law internationally and its effect on economic development, see

Berkowitz, Pistor, and Richard (2002)
8
It is not necessarily the case that the case law responds more effectively than statutory changes. For instance, as

exemplified by the law on contracts for the benefit of third parties, English law has clung with remarkable tenacity to the

principle that ‘only a person who is a party to a contract can sue on it’.” (ZK. 1998, 468) In contrast, the Continental

countries granted greater rights to third parties through statutory changes. For a fascinating comparison of the laws of

incorporation and partnerships in the United States and French, see Lamoreaux and Rosenthal (2002).
9
Zweigert and Kotz (1998, 158) argue that the unlike in France, the German civil code grants greater discretion to judges,

“... the courts in Germany have relied above all on the general clauses of Art. 138, 157, 242, and 826.”

33

10
One could argue that (i) adaptability is crucial, (ii) Common law countries tend be more flexible than Civil law

countries, and (iii) reject the view that German civil law systems tend to adapt more efficiently than French civil law

systems. We assess this empirically below.
11
Djankov, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes and Shleifer (2003) use survey data from law firms in 109 countries to construct

indicators of the functioning of the legal system when courts confront cases involving the eviction of tenants for non-

payments of rent and the collection of bounced check.
12
According to the endowment theory (Engerman and Sokoloff, 1997; Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, 2001), the

geographical endowments encountered by Europeans determined their colonization strategies. According to Acemoglu,

Johnson, and Robinson (2001), in areas with more favorable disease environments, Europeans founded settler colonies,

whereas in others they established extractive colonies. Settler colonies developed long-lasting institutions that protect

private property rights and are thus conducive to the development of financial markets. Extractive colonies instead

developed long-lasting institutions that allow the few elite to exploit their positions, with adverse implications for private

property rights (Easterly and Levine, 2003). Since countries that are closer to the equator tend to have unfavorable

disease endowments, we use latitude as an exogenous proxy of geographical endowments. In our previous work we also

used settler mortality, the log of death per thousand soldiers as an indicator of the initial disease environment. However,

this indicator is only available for former colonies. Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine (2003), however, show that using

latitude as indicator of initial endowments leads to similar conclusions.
13
This produces a Lagrange multiplier test statistic that under the null hypothesis is distributed Chi-squared (m), where m

is the number of overidentifying restrictions. The number of overidentifying restrictions equals the number of excluded

exogenous variables minus the number of endogenous variables included as regressors in the second stage regression.
14
These results hold when controlling for other potential exogenous determinants of financial development, such as the

degree of ethnic diversity (Easterly and Levine, 1997).
15
These numbers are based on the smallest coefficient estimates for each financial development indicator.

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39

Table 1
Summary Statistics and Correlations

Panel A: Summary Statistics
N Mean Std. Dev. Min Max

Private Credit 115 0.43 0.41 0.00 2.07
Stock Market Development 115 0.22 0.37 0 1.89
Property Rights 114 3.43 1.08 1 5
French Legal Origin 115 0.53 0.50 0 1
British Legal Origin 115 0.37 0.49 0 1
German Legal Origin 115 0.05 0.22 0 1
Tenure of Supreme Court Judges 61 1.79 0.49 0 2
Supreme Court Power 61 0.62 0.49 0 1
Case Law 61 0.64 0.48 0 1
Legal Justification 80 0.64 0.32 0 1
Latitude 115 0.25 0.18 0 0.72
Independence 115 0.39 0.38 0 1

Summary statistics are presented in Panel A and correlations are presented in Panel B, respectively. Private Credit is the value of credits by financial intermediaries to the private sector as share of GDP. Stock Market
Development measures the value of shares listed on the stock exchange as share of GDP. Property Rights reflects the degree to which government enforces laws that protect private property, with higher numbers indicating
better enforcement. Legal origin is a dummy variable that takes on the value one for countries with French civil law tradition, British common law, or German law tradition, and zero otherwise. Tenure of Supreme Court
Judges indicates the length of tenure of Supreme Court judges. Supreme Court Power is a dummy variable that takes on the value one if Supreme Court Judges have life-long tenure and jurisdiction over administrative cases.
Case Law is a dummy variable that takes on the value one if judges base their decision on case law. Legal Justification indicates whether judgments have to be based on statutory law rather than on principles of equity.
Latitude is the absolute value of the latitude of a country, scaled between zero and one. Independence is the percentage of years since 1776 that a country has been independent. Detailed variable definitions and sources are
given in the data appendix.

40
Panel B: Correlation Matrix of Variables
Tenure of Supreme
Private Stock Market Property French Legal British Legal German Legal Supreme Court
Credit Development Rights Origin Origin Origin Court Judges Power Case Law
Stock Market
Development 0.664***

Property Rights 0.632*** 0.522***

French Legal
Origin -0.362*** -0.296*** -0.405***

British Legal
Origin 0.041 0.198** 0.143 -0.821***

German Legal
Origin 0.549*** 0.207** 0.344*** -0.249*** -0.181*

Tenure of
Supreme Court
Judges -0.038 0.098 0.212 -0.245* 0.308** -0.196

Supreme Court
Power -0.108 0.173 0.127 -0.317** 0.471*** -0.311 0.567***

Case Law 0.190 0.273** 0.314*** -0.652*** 0.472*** 0.133 0.244* 0.495***

Legal
Justification -0.261** -0.425*** -0.303*** 0.560*** -0.569*** 0.076 -0.229* -0.402*** -0.470***

*, **, *** Indicate significance levels of 10, 5, and 1 percent respectively.

41

Table 2
Law and Finance
Obs
F-test for legal origin French legal origin British legal origin German legal origin Latitude Independence R2
Private Credit 13.900 -0.506B,G -0.344F,G 0.595B,F 0.383 115
(0.000) (0.002) (0.044) (0.021)
7.760 -0.093B,G 0.106F,G 0.721B,F 0.834 0.171 0.529 115
(0.000) (0.630) (0.568) (0.011) (0.000) (0.077)

Stock Market 5.960 -0.152B,G 0.044F 0.273 F 0.107 115
Development (0.001) (0.027) (0.654) (0.058)
5.450 0.039B 0.287F 0.262 0.349 0.220 0.192 115
(0.002) (0.764) (0.015) (0.112) (0.155) (0.003)

Property Rights 115.160 -1.783B,G -1.172F,G 0.200B,F 0.274 114
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.274)
13.280 -0.424B,G 0.320F 0.615F 2.7642 0.574 0.508 114
(0.000) (0.216) (0.321) (0.076) (0.000) (0.021)

The regression estimated is: Financial Sector Development = α + β1 French legal origin + β2 British legal origin + β3 German legal origin + β4X, where Financial Sector Development is either Private Credit, Stock Market
Development, or Property Rights. Private Credit is the value of credits by financial intermediaries to the private sector as share of GDP. Stock Market Development measures the value of shares listed on the stock exchange
as share of GDP. Property rights reflects the degree to which government enforces laws that protect private property, with higher numbers indicating better enforcement. French, British and German legal origin are dummy
variables that take on the value one for countries with French, British and German law tradition, respectively. The Scandinavian legal origin is captured by the constant. The regressions also include a vector of control
variables, X. Latitude is the absolute value of the latitude of a country, scaled between zero and one. Independence is the percentage of years since 1776 that a country has been independent. Regressions are estimated using
Ordinary Least Squares. The subscripts B, G, F signify that the respective coefficient is significantly different from the British, German and French Legal origin coefficient, respectively. P-values are given in parentheses.
Detailed variable definitions and sources are given in the data appendix.

42
Table 3
Law, Politics, and Legal Adaptability

Panel A: Political Structure
F-test for legal origin French legal origin British legal origin German legal origin R2 Obs
Tenure of Supreme 137.100 1.667B 2.000F,G 1.500B 0.846 61
Court Judges (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)

Supreme Court 12.510 -0.333B 0.150F,G -0.633B 0.299 61
Power (0.000) (0.114) (0.437) (0.012)

Panel B: Legal Adaptability
F-test for legal origin French legal origin British legal origin German legal origin R2 Obs
Case Law 20.770 -0.690B,G -0.048F -0.167F 0.432 61
(0.000) (0.000) (0.144) (0.294)

Legal Justification 15.060 0.296B -0.117F,G 0.189B 0.375 80
(0.000) (0.068) (0.479) (0.306)

The regression estimated in Panel A is: Political Structure = β1 French legal origin + β2 British legal origin + β3 German legal origin, where Political Structure is Tenure of Supreme Court Judges or Supreme Court Power.
French, British and German legal origin are dummy variables that take on the value one for countries with French civil law tradition, British common law tradition, and German law, respectively and zero otherwise. Tenure of
Supreme Court Judges indicates the length of tenure of Supreme Court judges. Supreme Court Power is a dummy variable that takes value one if Supreme Court Judges have life-long tenure and jurisdiction over
administrative cases. The regression estimated in Panel B is: Legal Adaptability = β1 French legal origin + β2 British legal origin + β3 German legal origin, where Legal Adaptability is either Case Law or Legal Justification.
Case Law is a dummy variable that takes on the value one if judges base their decision on case law. Legal Justification indicates whether judgments have to be based on statutory law rather than on principles of equity. All
regressions are estimated using Ordinary Least Squares. The subscripts B, G, F signify that the respective coefficient is significantly different from the British, German and French Legal origin coefficient, respectively. P-
values are given in parentheses.

43
Table 4
The Political Channel
Panel A: Private Credit
OIR test Tenure of Supreme Court Judges Supreme Court Power Latitude Independence Obs
Private 24.083 -0.258 61
Credit (0.000) (0.515)
21.024 -0.108 0.959 0.299 61
(0.000) (0.791) (0.007) (0.071)
23.655 -0.292 61
(0.000) (0.305)
21.125 0.052 0.897 0.358 61
(0.000) (0.876) (0.000) (0.085)

Panel B: Stock Market Development
Stock Market 7.298 0.349 61
Development (0.026) (0.291)
6.861 0.450 -0.164 0.142 61
(0.032) (0.218) (0.654) (0.288)
8.385 0.231 61
(0.015) (0.311)
7.078 0.444 0.022 0.262 61
(0.029) (0.134) (0.937) (0.114)

Panel C: Property Rights
Property 20.930 0.609 61
Rights (0.000) (0.442)
12.934 0.830 2.107 0.876 61
(0.002) (0.303) (0.000) (0.006)
20.951 0.136 61
(0.000) (0.802)
12.797 0.975 2.785 0.885 61
(0.002) (0.160) (0.000) (0.098)

The regressions estimated are: Financial Sector Development = α + β1 Political Structure and Financial Sector Development = α + β1 Political Structure+ β2 Latitude+ β3 Independence, where Financial Sector Development is
Private Credit, Stock Market Development, or Property Rights. Private Credit is the value of credits by financial intermediaries to the private sector as share of GDP. Stock Market Development measures the value of shares
listed on the stock exchange as share of GDP. Property rights reflects the degree to which government enforces laws that protect private property, with higher numbers indicating better enforcement. Political Structure is
Tenure of Supreme Court Judges or Supreme Court Power. Tenure of Supreme Court Judges indicates the length of tenure of Supreme Court judges. Supreme Court Power is a dummy variable that takes on value one if
Supreme Court Judges have life-long tenure and jurisdiction over administrative cases. Latitude is the absolute value of the latitude of a country, scaled between zero and one. Independence is the percentage of years since
1776 that a country has been independent. All regressions are estimated using Instrumental Variables – two stage least squares. In the first-stage regressions the political structure indicators are regressed on the British,
French, and German legal origin dummies. P-values are given in parentheses.

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