Applied Economics Seminar Series. "Justices of the Peace: Legal Foundations of the Industrial Revolution (with Tim Besley, Dan Bogart, and Jonathan Chapman)"
Published: 3 May 2024
05 June 2024. Professor Nuno Palma, University of Manchester
Professor Nuno Palma, University of Manchester
"Justices of the Peace: Legal Foundations of the Industrial Revolution (with Tim Besley, Dan Bogart, and Jonathan Chapman)"
Wednesday, 05 June 2024. 15:00-16:30
Room 141, Adam Smith Business School & PGT Hub
Abstract
State legal and collective capacity contributed to economic development during the Industrial Revolution. In England and Wales, the Monarchy and Parliament relied on local magistrates, known as Justices of the Peace (JPs), to enforce property rights and administer market regulation. We use new data on JP duties to document the expanding scope of state intervention in the economy after the 1688-9 Glorious Revolution. We find that counties and towns with more JPs around 1700—and hence ability to enforce a range of new laws developed by Parliament—experienced more population growth and economic development over the following 140 years. Plausibly conditional exogenous variation in JPs, driven by historical political factors, suggests that this relationship is causal. Several mechanisms and channels are documented, indicating the wide breadth of JPs’ impact on the economy.
Bio
Professor of Economics and Director of The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development, University of Manchester
For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk
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First published: 3 May 2024