When the Law Does Not Matter: The Rise and Decline of the Mexican Oil Industry
研究了1911-1929年墨西哥石油工业，发现当行业技术特征限制政府征用能力或能借助外国政府维护事实产权时，正式制度变化对经济影响有限，非正式制度才是关键。
Changes in formal institutions do not always affect economic outcomes. When an industry has specific technological features that limit a government's ability to expropriate it, or when the industry is able to call on foreign governments to enforce its de facto property rights, economic agents can easily mitigate changes in formal institutions designed to reduce these property rights. We explore the Mexican oil industry from 1911 to 1929 and demonstrate that informal rather than formal institutions were key, permitting oil companies to coordinate their responses to increases in taxes or the redefinition of their de jure property rights.