Abstract: Albeit the relevance of democracy and strong norms of cooperation in shaping the economy is well documented, we still lack a framework identifying the origins and isolating the separate roles of these institutions. This paper lays out a theory of "endogenous (in)formal institutions" based on time-inconsistency in investment and risk-sharing in consumption, and explores its empirical implications using a novel dataset on medieval Europe.
Bio: Carmine Guerriero is assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, and fellow of the Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics. His works study from both the theoretical and empirical standpoints the origins and economic impact of regulatory institutions, legal traditions (with a particular focus on the civil and common law), democracy, and culture.