Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England
研究了1688年光荣革命后英格兰宪法安排的演变，分析新制度如何让政府可信地承诺保护产权，并从资本市场证据证明其成功。
The article studies the evolution of the constitutional arrangements in seventeenth-century England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It focuses on the relationship between institutions and the behavior of the government and interprets the institutional changes on the basis of the goals of the winners—secure property rights, protection of their wealth, and the elimination of confiscatory government. We argue that the new institutions allowed the government to commit credibly to upholding property rights. Their success was remarkable, as the evidence from capital markets shows.