This systematic review focuses on the evidence about one specific causal mechanism:
from better enforcement of contracts to higher rates of capital accumulation.
The rationale for the review does not rest exclusively on the (still debated) causal
effect of investment on growth, but also on the fact that donors and governments do
invest resources and political capital in improving the business environment, and in
particular in seeking to improve the enforcement of contracts. While some of these
efforts could be simply justified on grounds of promoting the rule of law, the
underlying assumption for many of those reform efforts is that investments will be
unleashed by them, so analysing systematically the evidence in favour of that
assumption may eventually help in deciding what priority those reforms should have