| Abstract [eng] |
This dissertation studies the link between institutional quality and economic development in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). The case study’s methodology rests on the concept of limited access orders (LAOs) that defines virtually all pre-industrial polities and captures both formal and informal aspects of the overall institutional environment. In LAOs, the institutions are extractive, and political and economic competition – limited. Yet, LAOs can still develop by becoming more open and making their institutions more durable. Operationalising this framework, the dissertation implements a mixed methods approach. Each empirical chapter first analyses the GDL’s institutional quality by locating it within the spectrum of different types of LAOs. The second part of each empirical chapter evaluates historical economic outcomes using a combination of available data. This task includes algorithmically estimating structural breaks in two newly-constructed annual datasets of manors and church-building activities, analysing the descriptive statistics of several other indicators (such as urbanisation rate, machine-learning-based GDP per capita, or the number of wooden castles), and synthesising the findings of disciplines like archaeology. Overall, the case study largely supports the theory that there is a positive relationship between institutional quality and long-term development, while in LAOs, this development remains primarily extensive and accumulating among the elite. |
