Re:For every 1% increase in the number of lawyers, economic ...
by btilly on Monday October 05, 2020 @07:15PM
(#24693094)
The bigger issue is whether this is cause or correlation. As in, I believe that the figure is correct, and that more lawyers do cause less economic growth, but most of the correlation is not caused by the lawyers.
A less developed country probably doesn't have solid rule of law, and so has fewer lawyers. A less developed country also can generate fast economic growth by transferring knowledge from more advanced ones.
By contrast advanced countries have solid rule of law, and so lots of lawyers. They also can't easily grow through knowledge transfer, because there is nobody to transfer knowledge from. They have to generate new knowledge themselves.
I would therefore suggest removing GDP/capita as a confounding factor first.
That said, lawyers are economic sand. The main purpose of lawyers is to make other lawyers be needed. And lawyers are good at convincing themselves that they were needed. We would be better off with fewer lawyers. If you don't believe me, consider the phenomena of patent trolls. What do they add to anyone other than themselves?
A less developed country probably doesn't have solid rule of law, and so has fewer lawyers. A less developed country also can generate fast economic growth by transferring knowledge from more advanced ones.
By contrast advanced countries have solid rule of law, and so lots of lawyers. They also can't easily grow through knowledge transfer, because there is nobody to transfer knowledge from. They have to generate new knowledge themselves.
I would therefore suggest removing GDP/capita as a confounding factor first.
That said, lawyers are economic sand. The main purpose of lawyers is to make other lawyers be needed. And lawyers are good at convincing themselves that they were needed. We would be better off with fewer lawyers. If you don't believe me, consider the phenomena of patent trolls. What do they add to anyone other than themselves?