Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-fwgfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T22:30:09.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The impact of experience on how we perceive the rule of law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2020

Benito Arruñada Open the ORCID record for Benito Arruñada [Opens in a new window]
Benito Arruñada*
Affiliation:
Pompeu Fabra University and BGSE, Barcelona, Spain
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Experience is a major source of knowledge. Could institutions be improved by eliciting the additional knowledge held by experienced individuals? I show here that in several areas of the law experienced individuals are more critical of institutional quality than inexperienced individuals. Moreover, performance indexes built with experienced subsamples substantially alter country rankings. Assuming no unmeasured confounders, more knowledge arguably leads experienced individuals to revise the more benign view held by the general population, composed mostly of inexperienced individuals. Moreover, experience is a stronger driver than alternative sources of knowledge, including education, which might therefore be reinforcing milder and, arguably, incorrect assessments of institutional quality. After observing how this ‘experience effect’ varies systematically across countries, I conclude by proposing that evaluations of institutional quality pay greater attention to experienced individuals and cautioning against basing inferences on assessments made by the general population.

Keywords

Experienceinstitutionsknowledgemeasurementperceptionrule of law
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , pp. 251 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2020

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

Arndt, C. and Oman, C. (2006), Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators, Paris: OECD Development Center Study, OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Arruñada, B. (2007), ‘Pitfalls to Avoid when Measuring the Institutional Environment: Is ‘Doing Business’ Damaging Business?’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 35(4): 729–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behrer, A. P., Glaeser, E. L., Ponzetto, G. A. M. and Shleifer, A. (2019), ‘Securing Property Rights’, NBER Working Paper 22701, 19 August, http://www.crei.cat/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/securing_property.pdf (accessed 4 September 2019).Google Scholar
Blackwell, M., Iacus, S., King, G. and Porro, G. (2009), ‘CEM: Coarsened Exact Matching in Stata’, The Stata Journal, 9(4): 524–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botero, J. C. and Ponce, A. (2011), ‘Measuring the Rule of Law’, WJP Working Paper 1, November 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charron, N. (2016), ‘Do Corruption Measures Have a Perception Problem? Assessing the Relationship Between Experiences and Perceptions of Corruption among Citizens and Experts’, European Political Science Review, 8(1): 147–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chetty, R., Looney, A. and Kroft, K. (2009), ‘Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence’, American Economic Review, 99(4): 1145–1177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donchev, D. and Ujhelyi, G. (2014), ‘What Do Corruption Indices Measure?’, Economics and Politics, 26(2): 309–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funk, P. (2016), ‘How Accurate Are Surveyed Preferences for Public Policies? Evidence from a Unique Institutional Setup’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(3): 442–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburg, T. (2011), ‘Pitfalls of Measuring the Rule of Law’, Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 3(2): 269–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, E. L., La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2004), ‘Do Institutions Cause Growth?’, Journal of Economic Growth, 9(3): 271–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin, J. and Listokin, Y. (2014), ‘Tax Expenditure Salience’, American Law and Economics Review, 16(1): 144–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, G. M. and Helpman, E. (2001), Special Interest Politics, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1945), ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society’, American Economic Review, 35(4): 519–530.Google Scholar
Iacus, S. M., King, G. and Porro, G. (2008), ‘Matching for Causal Inference without Balance Checking’, http://gking.harvard.edu/files/cem.pdf (accessed November 25, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, M. C. and Meckling, W. H. (1992) ‘Specific and General Knowledge and Organizational Structure’, in Werin, L. and Wijkander, H. (eds.), Contract Economics, Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 251–274.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Mastruzzi, M. (2006), ‘Measuring Governance with Perception Data’, in Rose-Ackerman, S. (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 52–104.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Mastruzzi, M. (2007), ‘Growth and Governance: A Reply’, Journal of Politics, 69(2): 555–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Mastruzzi, M. (2010), ‘The Worldwide Governance Indicators: A Summary of Methodology, Data and Analytical Issues’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 5430, September.Google Scholar
Kurtz, M. and Schrank, A. (2007), ‘Growth and Governance: Models, Measures and Mechanisms’, Journal of Politics, 69(2): 538–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2008), ‘The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins’, Journal of Economic Literature, 46(2): 285–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, R., Lopez-De-Silanes, F., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R. W. (1997), ‘Legal Determinants of External Finance’, Journal of Finance, 52(3): 1131–1150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G. (1985), ‘Robust Regression’, in Hoaglin, D. C., Mosteller, F. and Tukey, J. W. (eds.), Exploring Data Tables, Trends, and Shapes, New York: Wiley, pp. 281–340.Google Scholar
Michelson, E. and Read, B. L. (2011), ‘Public Attitudes toward Official Justice in Beijing and Rural China’, in Woo, M. Y. K. and Gallagher, M. E. (eds.), Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 169–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olken, B. A. (2009), ‘Corruption Perceptions vs. Corruption Reality’, Journal of Public Economics, 93(7-8): 950–964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Razafindrakoto, M. and Roubaud, F. (2010), ‘Are International Databases on Corruption Reliable? A Comparison of Expert Opinion Surveys and Household Surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa’, World Development, 38(8): 1057–1069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roeder, P. G. (2001), ‘Ethnolinguistic Fractionalization (ELF) Indices, 1961 and 1985’, 16 February, http//:weber.ucsd.edu/~proeder/elf.htm (accessed 1 January 2019).Google Scholar
Rose, R. and Mishler, W. (2010), ‘Experience versus Perception of Corruption: Russia as a Test Case’, Global Crime, 11(2): 145–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, E. A. (2010), ‘Matching Methods for Causal Inference: A Review and a Look Forward’, Statistical Science, 25(1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TI, Transparency International (2018), ‘Corruption Perception Index 2017’, 21 February, https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017 (accessed 30 November 2018).Google Scholar
Treisman, D. (2000), ‘The Causes of Corruption: A Cross-National Study’, Journal of Public Economics, 76(3): 399–457.Google Scholar
Treisman, D. (2007), ‘What Have We Learned About the Causes of Corruption from Ten Years of Crossnational Empirical Research?’, Annual Review of Political Science, 10: 211–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treisman, D. (2015), ‘What Does Crossnational Empirical Research Reveal About the Causes of Corruption?’, in Heywood, P. (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 95–109.Google Scholar
Voigt, S. (2013), ‘How (Not) to Measure Institutions’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 9(1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, S. (2018), ‘How to Measure Informal Institutions’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, S., Gutmann, J. and Feld, L. P. (2015), ‘Economic Growth and Judicial Independence, a Dozen Years On: Cross-Country Evidence Using an Updated Set of Indicators’, European Journal of Political Economy, 38: 197–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber Abramo, C. (2008), ‘How Much Do Perceptions of Corruption Really Tell Us?’, Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 2(3): 1–56.Google Scholar
WJP, World Justice Project (2014), ‘The World Justice Project: General Population 2014 – Opinion Poll’, WJP, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
WJP, World Justice Project (2015), Rule of Law Index 2015, WJP, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
WJP, World Justice Project (2017), ‘The World Justice Project: General Population 2017 – Opinion Poll’, WJP, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
World Bank (2003–2018), Doing Business, Washington, DC.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Zheng, Y., McLaughlin, E. W. and Kaiser, H. M. (2013), ‘Salience and Taxation: Salience Effect versus Information Effect’, Applied Economics Letters, 20(4–6): 508–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar