Legal Forms of Firm Organization, Corporate Governance, and Business Expansion in the Middle East between 1887 and 1950

尽管对美国和西欧采用合法的商业组织形式及其与商业扩张的关系进行了广泛的研究，但中东地区的企业组织演变很少受到关注。鉴于中东在过去和现在世界经济中的重要地位，以及其漫长而多样的经济改革历史，更深入地了解中东经济史将有助于深入了解该地区的历史发展以及当今商业增长的决定因素。这个项目考察了法律机构如何影响企业的形成和扩张，更广泛地说，哪些类型的法律规则在促进投资和商业增长方面可能是有效的。了解促进商业增长和建立健全的私营部门的法律结构，可以揭示促进企业成功的政治和法律见解。这个项目通过构建一个大型的、新颖的数据集来探索这些问题，其中包括1887年至1950年期间土耳其和埃及在公司层面上的伙伴关系和公司。这一数据集的主要来源是商业目录和商业报纸，这些报纸刊登了合作伙伴关系合同和公司章程。调查人员将利用这一公司层面的数据集来开发和测试合伙人形成和解散的理论；检查公司组织的法律形式、欧洲法律的移植和业务扩张之间的关系；探索这两个国家的公司治理、工业化和政治经济之间的联系；以及调查长期主导中东商业生活的非穆斯林企业的消失。对公司及其董事会的审查，特别是由证券承销商和政府成员组成的连锁董事会的形成，将揭示公司治理和国家在工业化、产业组织和公司绩效中的作用。

Despite extensive studies on the adoption of legal forms of business organization and its relation to commercial expansion in the U.S. and Western Europe, the evolution of firm organization in the Middle East has received little attention. Due to the Middle East's important status in the past and present world economy, and its long and varied history of economic reforms, a greater understanding of Middle East economic history will yield insights about the region's historical development as well as determinants of business growth today. This project examines how legal institutions affect business formation and expansion, and more generally, what types of legal rules might be effective in fostering investment and commercial growth. Understanding the legal structures that promote business growth and establishment of a robust private sector reveals political and legal insights that promote successful enterprise. This project explores these questions by constructing a large, novel dataset of Turkish and Egyptian partnerships and corporations at the firm level between 1887 and 1950. The main sources of this dataset are business directories and commercial newspapers that published partnership contracts and corporation charters. The investigator will use this firm-level dataset to develop and test a theory of partnership formation and dissolution; examine the relationship between legal forms of firm organization, transplantation of European law, and business expansion; explore the links between corporate governance, industrialization and the political economy of these two countries; and investigate the disappearance of non-Muslim enterprises which had long dominated the Middle East's commercial life. The examination of corporations and their boards of directors, especially the formation of an interlocking directorate made up of securities underwriters and government members, will reveal the role of corporate governance and the state in industrialization, industrial organization, and firm performance.