Earthquakes, Religion, and Transition to Self-Government in Italian Cities

Belloc, Marianna; Drago, Francesco; Galbiati, Roberto

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2692532

Cited by 12 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In particular, the conversion of beliefs, rather than the intensification of practices within a common set of beliefs, may have deeper social implications, as indoctrination may sway people's preferences (Alesina and Fuchs-Sch ündeln, 2007). 3 History tells us that religious leaders benefited from distressing events to exert greater political power -e.g., in pre-modern Egypt (Chaney, 2013) and Italian Episcopal cities (Belloc et al, 2016). Our findings, which are established within a contemporary democracy, parallel the existing historical evidence.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Stop Suffering! Economic Downturns and Pentecostal Upsurge

Costa

Junior

Rocha

2022

Journal of the European Economic Association

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This paper estimates the effects of economic downturns on the expansion of Pentecostal Evangelicalism in Brazil. Regions more exposed to economic distress experienced a persistent rise both in Pentecostal affiliation and in the vote share of candidates connected to Pentecostal churches in national legislative elections. Once elected, these politicians carried out an agenda with greater emphasis on issues that are sensitive to fundamental religious principles. We, therefore, find that recessions led to the rise of religious fundamentalism in tandem with the transfer of political capital to elected Pentecostal leaders.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Stop Suffering! Economic Downturns and Pentecostal Upsurge

Costa

Junior

Rocha

2022

Journal of the European Economic Association

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“…These findings shed new light on theories and findings on cultural evolution, existential insecurity, and religiosity. Studies in this field have examined how country-and regional-level contexts that are related to existential threats can be drivers of people's religiosity, such as exposure to poverty and insecure economic conditions (Ager & Ciccone, 2017;Barber, 2011;Chen, 2010;Herzer & Strulik, 2017;Höllinger & Muckenhuber, 2019;Immerzeel & Van Tubergen, 2011;Molteni, 2020;Norris & Inglehart, 2004;Ruiter & Van Tubergen, 2009;Solt, Habel, & Grant, 2011;Storm, 2017;Van Ingen & Moor, 2015), earthquakes (Belloc, Drago, & Galbiati, 2016;Bentzen, 2019;Sibley & Bulbulia, 2012), and pandemics (Bentzen, 2021;Molteni et al, 2021). A limitation of earlier work is that observed patterns can be caused by both sociotropic and egotropic threats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict intensity in the region of birth increases religiosity among refugees

Tubergen¹,

Kosyakova²,

Kanas³

2022

Preprint

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Do violent conflicts increase religiosity? This study draws on evidence from a large-scale survey on refugees in Germany linked with data on time-varying conflict intensity in refugees’ birth regions prior to the survey interview. The results show that the greater the number of conflict-induced fatalities in the period before the interview, the more often refugees pray. The relationship between conflict and praying holds equally across demographic subgroups. Evidence suggests that both short- and long-term cumulative fatalities in refugees’ birth regions affect how often they pray. Additionally, the link between conflict and praying is stronger for refugees who have family and relatives still living in their country of origin. Finally, we show that the conflicts that matter are those occurring within the refugees’ specific region of birth rather than in other regions in the country. Implications for existential insecurity theory and cultural evolutionary theory are discussed.

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“…Third, we control for historical experiences that, in view of the literature, might interact with the emergence of the self-governed republics. To account for the role of historical centers of economic and religious power, we control for the distance from cities hosting bishops that existed in the year 1000 AD (see Belloc et al, 2016). Finally, we also control for free cities and cities fighting against the Emperor, assessed in terms of participation in the Lombard League.…”

Section: Preliminary Analysis: Correlates Of Republican Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, both geography, i.e., more or less easy access to the sea, and historical contingencies, i.e., related to the ability of communal rulers to offer productive services and to the uncertain fortunes of long-distance trade and military expeditions, shaped the interests of local elites and the emerging social contracts. 2 Studies of historical republicanism have thus far relied on information on free cities or city charters (see Stasavage (2010Stasavage ( , 2014; Bosker et al (2013); Guiso et al (2016); Belloc et al (2016); Angelucci et al (2020); Serafinelli and Tabellini (2022), among others). We offer a measurement of local exposure to these multiple republican treatments across the different locations in terms of intensity and stability at a high level of spatial disaggregation, which, following the conceptualization, also tracks the patterns and stability of forceful territorial annexation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical social contracts and their legacy: a disaggregated analysis of the medieval republics

et al. 2022

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We study the comparative political economy within the territories ruled by the medieval republics in Northern Italy. Building on the historical evidence, we conceptualize the emergence of more inclusive vs. extractive institutions in these sovereign polities as driven by the interests of local rulers and their need to build state capacity. We provide novel insights on the role of geography and historical contingencies in the development of public governance, individual attitudes, and social-inclusion, which mutually supported each other and persisted over time. We measure the origin, territorial evolution, and disappearance of all the sovereign polities that ruled over the Italian peninsula during the period of 1000-1800 AD. The empirical analysis connects contemporary socio-economic outcomes across spatially disaggregated northern Italian localities, at the municipality level, to local political history. We distinguish between so-called “communal” and “maritime republics” and show that the intensity and stability of exposure to the different types of republican rule in pre-industrial times continues to shape local public good provision and individual fiscal compliance, and has left a tangible imprint on today’s population diversity.

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Earthquakes, Religion, and Transition to Self-Government in Italian Cities

Cited by 12 publications

References 33 publications

Stop Suffering! Economic Downturns and Pentecostal Upsurge

Stop Suffering! Economic Downturns and Pentecostal Upsurge

Conflict intensity in the region of birth increases religiosity among refugees

Historical social contracts and their legacy: a disaggregated analysis of the medieval republics

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