Improving credibility by delegating judicial competence--the case of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

摘要

It is argued that government credibility is an important resource and that it can be improved bydelegating decision-making competence beyond the nation-state. It is hypothesized that such delegationshould result in higher income and growth. Some former British colonies retained the Judicial Committee ofthe Privy Council as their final court of appeals even after independence. This court is thus taken as anatural experiment to test our hypothesis. It turns out that retaining the jurisdiction is indeed significant forexplaining economic growth.