This paper examines the impact of institutional change on market integration. We show that the French Revolution’s ideals of freedom and equality that swept through Germany following French rule around the year 1800 significantly reduced city-to-city price gaps in nineteenth century Germany because the ideas led to institutional upgrading in the German states. The economic impact of institutions reduced price gaps by about 25%. Examining a range of indicators of institutional quality, we find that relatively broad indicators affecting multiple elements of commercial activity are most powerful in explaining institutions’ effect on the integration between economies. The paper shows that institutional change does not only change a given, individual economy but its impact is multiplied because institutional change affects the relationship between multiple economies.

中文翻译：

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市场整合与制度变迁

本文研究了制度变迁对市场整合的影响。我们表明，法国大革命在1800年左右法国统治之后席卷了德国的自由与平等理想，大大缩小了19世纪德国城市间的价格差距，因为这种思想导致了德国各州的体制升级。机构的经济影响使价格差距减少了约25％。通过检查一系列制度质量指标，我们发现影响商业活动多个要素的相对广泛的指标在解释制度对经济之间一体化的影响方面最有力。该论文表明，制度变迁不仅会改变一个给定的东西，