Causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation

Abstract

The Protestant Reformation is one of the defining events of the last millennium. Nearly 500 years after the Reformation, its causes and consequences have seen a renewed interest in the social sciences. Research in economics, sociology, and political science increasingly uses detailed individual-level, city-level, and regional-level data to identify drivers of the adoption of the Reformation, its diffusion pattern, and its socioeconomic consequences. We take stock of this research, pointing out what we know and what we do not know and suggesting the most promising areas for future research.

The Impact of the Reformation on the Economic Development of Western Europe

“…It was backed by the secular power of the state, actively enforcing orthodox claims, sanctioning excommunicates, and punishing heretics (Becker et al, 2016). Such monopolistic barriers, enforced by orthodox teachings and criminal persecution, prevented entry of rival ideas (Miller, 2002;Stark and Iannaccone, 1994).…”

“…In general, economists and other social scientists agree that there is a strong relation between the Reformation and economic growth (Becker et al, 2016). There is also an active discussion as to what are the causal pathways connecting Protestantism to long-run economic success.…”

Plague, Politics, and Pogroms: The Black Death, Rule of Law, and the Persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire

“…In the Holy Roman Empire, however, this process stalled and went into reverse and as a result central Europe remained politically fragmented until the nineteenth century (Scales, 2005;Wilson, 2016). The fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire had important consequences for the success of the Reformation, an event that greatly shaped subsequent European history (see Becker et al, 2016). Our analysis sheds lights on the causes of this political weakness at a crucial point in the institutional history of the Holy Roman Empire.…”

State Capacity and Public Goods: Institutional Change, Human Capital, and Growth in Early Modern Germany

“…Squicciarini and Voigtländer (2015) document the relationship between upper tail human capital and growth as the industrial revolution diffused in France in the late 1700s. Becker, Pfaff, and Rubin (2015) provide a survey of economics research on the Protestant Reformation. We discuss this literature further below.…”

“…In other recent research, Cantoni, Dittmar, and Yuchtman (2015) find that locations where Catholic monasteries were closed saw human and physical capital reallocated away from church use (1517-1600) and Basten and Betz (2013) find differences in preferences in Switzerland along the border between historically Protestant and Catholic territories. For a review of the literature see Becker, Pfaff, and Rubin (2015). A larger literature looks at how religion explains differences in performance across countries (Barro and McCleary, 2003) and differences in preferences across individuals in contemporary settings (Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales, 2003).…”