Resoluciones de disputas comerciales y desempeño económico regional en México

In this article, we analyze the relationship between the economic growth rate and a rule of law indicator in Mexican states during the period 2006–2013. Specifically, we employ information regarding the time it takes to solve commercial disputes in local courts, which we use as a proxy variable to measure the efficiency of the justice system. In principle, we expect that the shorter the time it takes to resolve commercial disputes, the higher the growth rates will be in the states where the firms are located. Long, drawn-out court disputes are costly for firms, which in turn may translate into lower growth rates due to the negative impact of these costs on their levels of investment. The results suggest that a 100-day decrease in the time it takes to resolve a commercial dispute is associated with an increase of 0.6 per cent in the average GDP per capita growth rate in Mexican states.