Premium
The Great Divide Revisited: Ottoman and Habsburg Legacies on Transition
Author(s) -
DimitrovaGrajzl Valentina
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
kyklos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-6435
pISSN - 0023-5962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6435.2007.00384.x
Subject(s) - successor cardinal , socialism , institutional change , quality (philosophy) , ottoman empire , political science , east central europe , variation (astronomy) , economy , economics , political economy , economic system , law , politics , public administration , mathematical analysis , communism , philosophy , physics , mathematics , epistemology , astrophysics
SUMMARY The former socialist countries of South East and Central Europe exhibit great variation in institutional quality. Unlike the sparse existing literature, I claim that the variation can be explained by the legacies of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. I identify historical legacies of the Empires, which have affected the current institutional quality of the successor states. I show empirically that the Empires' legacies are key determinants of institutional quality, and that the Habsburg successors have institutions that are more efficient in a market economy than the Ottoman successors. In contrast, I find an insignificant effect of socialism on institutional quality.