Odd Markets in Japanese History(ISBN=9780521048255)

　　Using a straightforward rational-choice approach, Professor Ramseyerexplores the impact that law had on various markets in Japanese historyand the effect that those markets had on economic growth. In doing so,he applies an economic logic to markets in a different world in a differenthistorical period with a different political regime and a different legalsystem. He looks hardest at those markets that have most often strucktraditional observers as "exploitative" (e.g., the markets for indenturedservants and for sexual services). Within those markets, he focuses on theway participants handled informational asymmetries in the contractingprocess.
  Ramseyer finds that Japanese courts generally defined important prop-erty rights clearly, and that Japanese markets generally protected an indi-vidual's control over his or her own labor. As a result, that the Japaneseeconomy grew at relatively efficient levels follows directly from standardeconomic theory. He also concludes that the legal system usually pro-moted mutually advantageous deals, and that market participants(whether poor or rich, female or male) generally mitigated informationalasymmetries shrewdly by contract. He finds no systematic evidence ofeither sex- or age-based exploitation.

List of tables
Series editors" preface
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
1  Historical context
2　Property rights and Japanese studies
3  This project
　3.1  Coverage
　3.2  Caveats
　3.3  Selection criteria
4  Law & economics and history
CHAPTER I
LAW  AND  ECONOMIC  GROWTH
Introduction
The property rights paradigm
Law and efficient growth in Japan
Why relatively efficient law?
3.1  General theories
3.2  Federalism in Tokugawa Japan
3.3  Legal efficiency in imperial Japan
Conclusion
……