Law and censorship in social media
The imminent European regulation on social media will only make things worse
A personal view on a number of topics.
Shame again
Our civilization forgets that it freed individuals, giving them feelings of guilt, to reduce the paralyzing oppression of shame
The reform of bankruptcy
Video interview for FacultiNet on the reform of bankruptcy
World Bank’s Doing Business Is Dead for the Wrong Reasons
The World Bank is discontinuing the Doing Business indicators because of irregularities in the application of its methodology. However, it is the flaws in that methodology and its sports-league marketing that have caused most damage, distorting policy priorities and favoring cosmetic reforms.
Spaniards’ contradictory values lead to inefficient law
Opinion polls reflect that dominant social values in Spanish society favor, in comparison with our European neighbors, the State playing a…
Blockchain Lessons for Capitalism: Applying Adam Smith’s Wisdom to Our Mistakes
Remarks at the Panel from the “New Enlightenment Conference: Reshaping Capitalism and the Global Order in a Neo-Mercantilist World,” Session…
The experienced perceive that institutions work worse
Those who get in touch with rule-of-law institutions perceive that they work worse. Optimism on the functioning of institutions seems to be…
Religion and the European Union
In “Religion and the European Union,” we point out that the recent literature on cultural differences across euro member states fails to…
Property Rights in Sequential Exchange
From Coase (1960) to Akerlof (1970), Williamson (1979), and Grossman and Hart (1986), economic models assume that transactors are well…
Business Formalization, Policy, and Organizational Success
In this edition of CIBER Focus, Benito will talk to us the business formalization process, measures of business success, and government…
Evolving Practice in Land Demarcation
Efforts to plan economic development tend to apply uniform and supposedly optimal solutions, increasingly expressed in terms of targets…
Blockchain: The Birth of Decentralized Governance
In this new Working Paper with Luis Garicano, we argue that, by allowing networks to split, decentralized blockchain platforms protect…
Diverging Separatisms
By Benito Arruñada and Albert Satorra. Adapted translation of “Separatismos divergentes,” El País, May 17, 2018, p. 14. The outcome of the…
The Weight of Reality in Catalonia
By Benito Arruñada and Albert Satorra. Adapted translation of “El peso de la realidad en Cataluña” (El País, December 18, 2017, p. 13). When…
Lack of land titling: more than a cause, a consequence of poverty
Discussions on economic development have lately focused on the role of institutions in protecting property rights and reducing transaction…
The Limits of Blockchain in Property: Trading Claims is not Trading Rights
The law-and-economics of property throws doubts on the prospects of blockchain for transacting durable high-value assets. You are free to…
Property as Sequential Exchange: The Forgotten Limits of Private Contract
In this paper, published at the Journal of Institutional Economics (2017), I trace the disconnection between economic analysis and property…
The fragility of credit markets
During the economic crisis in countries that had experienced housing bubbles, from the US to Spain, thousands of homeowners faced…
World Justice Project Scholars 2016 Conference
The content from the May 2016 conference of WJP Scholars at Stanford is now live on the WJP website. Scholars Conference page with materials…
Catalonia’s Dangerous Illusions
By B. Arruñada and V. Lapuente Giné (Project Syndicate, September 23, 2015). BARCELONA – Catalonia’s upcoming parliamentary election could…