The Cost of Registering Property: Does Legal Origin Matter?

Abstract

There is a large literature that finds that common law countries perform better than civil law countries in various aspects of the institutional environment. The present paper extends these findings to another dimension of institutional quality - the cost of registering property. In a sample of 121 countries, we find that the cost of registering property is lower by 26 percent of the world average in common law compared with civil law countries, a result largely driven by differences in non-notary costs of registering property. We provide plausible explanations for these findings.

Keywords: Legal origin, Institutions, Property registration

JEL Classification: D23, H1, H82, K00, K11, N20, P11, P14, P51