What Determines Protection of Property Rights? An Analysis of Direct and Indirect Effects
利用跨国数据，评估法律起源、资源禀赋、民族多样性和宗教对产权保护的直接与间接影响，发现民族分裂是预测产权保护的最强制度因素，而法律起源的影响则较为脆弱。
Using cross-country data, we evaluate four conceptually distinct causal variables believed to shape property rights institutions: Legal Origin, Endowments, Ethnic Diversity, and Religion. Given the correlations between the explanatory variables, it is difficult to fashion empirical tests which are consistent in their treatment of the competing theories and to know which regressions to take seriously, giving rise to competing interpretations in the literature. We identify which of the variables are direct determinants of property rights protection and which are not, and subject the outcomes to a battery of robustness tests. We find that ethnic fractionalization is the dominant institutional predictor of property rights protection across the world. Despite the attention it has received in the literature, the impact of Legal Origin on protection of property rights appears fragile and dependent on the inclusion of transition economies in the sample.