Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Earthquakes, Religion, and Transition to Self-Government in Italian Cities Abstract For a panel of 122 cities observed over 300 years in medieval northern-central Italy, we document that the occurrence of an earthquake retarded institutional transition from the feudal regime to the commune (free city state) in cities where the political and the religious leaders were one and the same person, but not in cities where political and religious powers were distinct. This effect holds both for destructive seismic episodes and for events that were felt by the population but did not cause any material damage to persons or objects. These findings are consistent with the idea that earthquakes represented a positive shock to people's religious beliefs and enhanced the relative ability of politicalreligious leaders to restore social order after a crisis with respect to the emerging communal institutions and civic associations. This interpretation is supported by historical evidence. Terms of use: Documents inJEL-Codes: D700, P160, Z120.

Persistent inconsistency between predictions of standard theoretical models and empirical evidence of international trade dynamics suggests that the traditional understanding of the determinants of actual international trade patterns is incomplete. What is missing? A recent literature suggests paying more attention to the role of the domestic institutional environment. The level and nature of development of the relevant institutions may be shown to affect competitiveness, by altering both production and transaction costs. In the extreme case, alternative institutional architectures that emerge in different countries may be interpreted as the cause of relative advantage/disadvantage even if technological levels, factor endowments and tastes are identical everywhere. Although in standard international trade models institutions remain implicit, it is hard to explain trade patterns and international competitiveness without taking institutions explicitly into consideration. By reviewing and reorganizing the most interesting contributions on this issue, this survey discusses how institutional diversity affects comparative advantage and international trade dynamics.

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