Beyond Legal Origin And Checks And Balances

Philip Keefer makes a genuinely interesting institutional economics argument — that political credibility and citizen information matter more than legal origin for financial development — and the World Bank imprimatur signals real rigor. But this is a specialist working paper, not a book, and nearly two decades of subsequent research has either absorbed or overtaken its claims. Institutional economics scholars may find it useful as a historical data point; everyone else should look for more recent literature.