Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T11:23:46.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Credible Commitment and Property Rights: Evidence from Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2004

TIMOTHY FRYE
TIMOTHY FRYE
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Few dispute that secure property rights are critical to economic development. But if secure property rights are so beneficial, then why are they so rare? More precisely, what factors promote secure property rights? Do rightholders view private or state agents as a greater threat to property? Do they value bureaucratic commitment or discretion? I use evidence from two original surveys of company managers in Russia to assess the institutional, social, and political determinants of secure property rights. Most managers said that state arbitration courts did not work badly in disputes with other businesses, but few expected these courts to protect their rights in disputes with state officials. More importantly, managers who expressed confidence that state arbitration courts could constrain state officials invested at higher rates, even controlling for the perceived effectiveness of state institutions. Ironically, increasing constraints on state agents can increase the security of property and bolster state capacity. These results generate insights into debates on the role of state in the economy, the origins of secure property rights, the nature of state capacity, the importance of informal institutions, and the process of legal reform.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 98 , Issue 3 , August 2004 , pp. 453 - 466
Copyright
© 2004 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu Daron, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. 2001. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation.” American Economic Review 91 (December): 1369– 1401.Google Scholar
Arrow Kenneth. 1974. “Gifts and Exchanges.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (Fall): 343– 62.Google Scholar
Barzel Yoram. 1989. Economic Analysis of Property Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Besley Timothy. 1995. “Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana.” Journal of Political Economy 103 (October): 903– 37.Google Scholar
Campos Jose Edgardo, and Hilton Root. 1994. The Key to the Asian Miracle: Making Shared Growth Credible. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Carothers Thomas. 1998. “The Rule of Law Revival.” Foreign Affairs 77 (March–April): 1– 23.Google Scholar
Demsetz Harold. 1967. “Toward a Theory of Property Rights.” American Economic Review 57 (June): 347– 59.Google Scholar
Diermeier Daniel, Joel Ericson, Timothy Frye, and Steve Lewis. 1997. “Credible Commitment and Property Rights: The Role of Strategic Interaction between Political and Economic Actors.” In The Political Economy of Property Rights, ed. Dave Weimer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20– 42.
Ericson Joel. 1997. “Private Firms, City Government, and Arbitration: Enforcing Economic Legality in St. Petersburg.” In The Political Economy of Property Rights, ed. Dave Weimer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 150– 78.
Frye Timothy. 2002. “Private Protection in Russia and Poland.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (June): 572– 84.Google Scholar
Frye Timothy, and Andrei Shleifer. 1997. “The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 87 (May): 554– 9.Google Scholar
Graham Thomas. 2002. “Fragmentation of Russia.” In Russia After the Fall, ed. Andrew Kuchins. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment, 39– 61.
Greif Avner. 1994. “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies.” Journal of Political Economy 103 (October): 912– 50.Google Scholar
Hellman Joel S., Geraint Jones, and Daniel Kaufmann. 2000. “Seize the State, Seize the Day: An Empirical Analysis of State Capture and Corruption in Transition Economies.” Research Working Paper 2444. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Hendley Kathryn. 2002. “Suing the State in Russia.” Post-Soviet Affairs 18 (2): 122– 47.Google Scholar
Hendley Kathryn, Peter Murrell, and Randi Ryterman. 2000. “Law Works in Russia: The Role of Law in Interenterprise Transactions.” Assessing the Value of the Rule of Law in Transition Economies, ed. Peter Murrell. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 56– 93.
Hoff Karla and Joseph Stiglitz. 2002. “After the Big Bang: Obstacles to the Emergence of the Rule of Law in Russia.” Paper Presented at Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston.
Holmes Stephen. 1995. “Conceptions of Democracy in the Draft Constitutions of Postcommunist Countries.” In Markets, States, and Democracy: The Political Economy of Postcommunist Transition, ed. Beverly Crawford. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 71– 80.
Holmes Stephen. 1996. “Cultural Legacies or State Collapse?” In Perspectives on Postcommunism, ed. Michael Mandelbaum. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 22– 76.
Johnson Simon, John McMillan, and Christopher Woodruff. 1999. “Contract Enforcement in Transition.” Working Paper 45. EBRD, London.
Johnson Simon, John McMillan, and Christopher Woodruff. 2002. “Property Rights and Finance.” American Economic Review 92 (December): 1335– 56.Google Scholar
Kaufmann Daniel, Aart Kray, and Pablo Zoido-Laboton. 1999. “Governance Matters.” Policy Research Working Paper 2196. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Levi Margaret. 1988. Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley: University of California Press.
North Douglass. 1993. “Institutions and Credible Commitment.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 149 (1): 11– 23.Google Scholar
North Douglass C., and Robert Paul Thomas. 1973. The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History. New York: Cambridge University Press.
North Douglass C., and Barry R. Weingast. 1989. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth Century England.” Journal of Economic History 59 (4): 803– 32.Google Scholar
Pistor Katharina. 1996. “Supply and Demand for Contract Enforcement in Russia.” Review of Russian and East European Law 1: 55– 87.Google Scholar
Przeworski Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Putnam Robert. 1994. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Raiser Martin. 1999. “Social Capital in Transition: A First Look at the Evidence.” Ms. EBRD, London.
Riker William, and Itai Sened. 1991. “A Political Theory of the Origin of Property Rights: Airport Slots.” American Journal of Political Science 35 (October): 951– 69.Google Scholar
Riker William, and David Weimer. 1993. “The Economic and Political Liberalization of Socialism: The Fundamental Problem of Property Rights.” Social Philosophy and Policy 10 (2): 79– 102.Google Scholar
Roland Gerard. 2000. Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets, and Firms. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Root Hilton. 1989. “Tying the King's Hands: Credible Commitments and Royal Fiscal Policy During the Old Regime.” Rationality and Society 1 (May): 240– 58.Google Scholar
Shleifer Andrei, and Robert Vishny. 1998. The Grabbing Hand: Government Pathologies and Their Cures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Simachev Yurii. 2003. Arbitrazh kak instrument uregulirovania sporov v korporativnoi sfere. Moscow: Institute for Complex Strategic Research.
Solomon Peter. 2002. “Putin's Judicial Reform: Making Judges Accountable as Well as Independent.” East European Constitutional Review 11 (Winter–Spring): 117– 24.Google Scholar
Stiglitz Joseph. 1999. “Whither Reform.” Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Svejnar Jan. 2002. “Transition Economies: Performance and Challenges.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16 (Winter): 3– 28.Google Scholar
Weimer David L. 1997. “Introduction.” In The Political Economy of Property Rights, ed. David L. Weimer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1– 19.
Weingast Barry. 1993. “Constitutions as Governance Structures: The Political Foundations of Secure Markets.” Journal of International and Theoretical Economics 149 (March): 286– 311.Google Scholar
Weingast Barry. 1997. “The Political Foundations of the Rule of Law.” American Political Science Review 91 (January): 245– 64.Google Scholar
Yakovlev Andrei. 2001. “Black Cash: Disincentives to Invest in the Formal Economy.” Europe-Asia Studies 53 (January): 33– 55.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.