Contract-intensive money: Contract enforcement, property rights, and economic performance

We introduce a new, easily accessed and objective measure of the enforceabi lity of contracts and the security of property rights. This measure, called "contract-intensive money" or CIM, is based on citizens' decisions regardi ng the form in which they choose to hold their financial assets. Country ca se studies show that CIM varies over time in response to political events i n ways predicted by our arguments. We also show that CIM is positively rela ted to investment and growth rates, and to the relative size of contract-de pendent sectors of the economy.