The Cost of Registering Property: Does Legal Origin Matter?

Mohammad Amin, Enterprise Analysis Unit, FPDEA, World Bank, Washington, DC.
Jamal I. Haidar, World Bank

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 the cost of registering property. In a sample of 121 countries, we find that the cost of registering property is lower by 22% 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 also find that GDP per capita and presidential as opposed to parliamentary political system are highly correlated with lower registration costs. We provide plausible explanations for these findings.