The economic effects of the Protestant Reformation: Testing the Weber hypothesis in the German Lands

Many theories, most famously Max Weber’s essay on the “Protestant ethic,” have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With their considerable religious heterogeneity and stability of denominational affiliations until the 19th century, the German Lands of the Holy Roman Empire present an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures in a dataset comprising 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find no effects of Protestantism on economic growth. The finding is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls, and does not appear to depend on data selection or small sample size. In addition, Protestantism has no effect when interacted with other likely determinants of economic development. I also analyze the endogeneity of religious choice; instrumental variables estimates of the effects of Protestantism are similar to the OLS results.Protestantism, Culture, Economic Growth, Historical Development, Germany

Adopting a new religion: The case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany

Using a rich dataset of territories and cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, this paper investigates the determinants of adoption and diffusion of Protestantism as a state religion. A territory’s distance to Wittenberg, the city where Martin Luther taught, is a major determinant of adoption. This finding can be explained through a theory of strategic neighbourhood interactions: in an uncertain legal context, introducing the Reformation was a risky enterprise for territorial lords, and had higher prospects of success if powerful neighbouring states committed to the new faith first. The model is tested in a panel dataset featuring the dates of introduction of the Reformation.Protestantism, State religions, Germany, Spatial adoption of policies

Resistant Nonparametric Smoothing with S-PLUS

In this paper we introduce and illustrate the use of an S-PLUS set of functions to fit M-type smoothing splines with the smoothing parameter chosen by a robust criterion (either a robust version of cross-validation or a robust version of Mallows's Cp ). The main reference is: Cantoni, E. and Ronchetti, E. (2001). Resistant selection of the smoothing parameter for smoothing splines. Statistics and Computing, 11, 141-146.

Breach of faith? Italian-Soviet Cold War trading and Eni’s international oil scandal

The article was submitted on 10.07.2015.By the late-1950s, Soviet oil exports to Western Europe caused widespread concern in a number of Western countries as these feared that Moscow could use oil to weaken their economic interests. At the same time though, other Western countries had no hesitation in developing trade relations with the Soviets, seeing this as a good commercial opportunity. The paramount example of such political nonchalance was Italy’s oil company, ENI. In 1960, ENI signed a barter contract with the Soviets, causing a scandal in the Western oil world: the Italian company’s act was seen as a serious breach of faith by its international allies. As a consequence, ENI’s contract became a serious bone of contention in the country’s bilateral and international relations. This paper analyzes the origins and development of the ENI-Soviet deal, and focuses on the reactions of Italy’s Western allies and the debate it generated at the European Economic Community.В конце 1950-х гг. поставки нефти из СССР в Западную Европу вызвали озабоченность в некоторых европейских странах, которые опасались, что Москва может использовать нефть в целях ослабления их экономических интересов. Однако наряду с этим, другие европейские страны продолжали поддерживать торговые отношения с Советским Союзом, считая их перспективными. Ярким примером такой политической беспечности стала итальянская нефтяная компания ENI (Национальное нефтегазовое учреждение). В 1960 г. она подписала с СССР соглашение о товарообмене, чем вызвала скандал на европейском нефтяном рынке: международные союзники восприняли действия итальянской компании как измену. В результате контракт ENI стал камнем преткновения в двусторонних и многосторонних отношениях Италии с другими странами. В статье рассматриваются предпосылки и этапы развития сотрудничества ENI и СССР, при этом особое внимание уделяется изучению реакции западных союзников Италии и споров, которые это событие вызвало в Европейском экономическом сообществе

A Tear in the Iron Curtain: The Impact of Western Television on Consumption Behavior

This paper examines the impact of exposure to foreign media on the economic behavior of agents in a totalitarian regime. We study private consumption choices focusing on former East Germany, where differential access to Western television was determined by geographic features. Using data collected after the transition to a market economy, we find no evidence of a significant impact of previous exposure to Western television on aggregate consumption levels. However, exposure to Western broadcasts affects the composition of consumption, biasing choices in favor of categories of goods with high intensity of pre-reunification advertisement. The effects vanish by 1998

Educational Content, Educational Institutions and Economic Development: Lessons from History

Individuals’ choices of educational content are often shaped by the political economy of government policies that determine the incentives to acquire various skills. We first present a model to show how differences in educational content emerge as an equilibrium outcome of private decisions and government policy choices. We then illustrate these dynamics in two historical circumstances. In medieval Europe, states and the Church found individuals trained in Roman law valuable, and eventually supported investments in this new form of human capital. This had positive effects on Europe’s commercial and institutional development. In late 19th-century China, elites were afraid of the introduction of Western science and engineering and continued to select civil servants - who enjoyed substantial rents—based on their knowledge of Confucian classics. As a result, China lacked skills useful in modern industry. Finally, we present a variety of other contemporary and historical applications of this theory

Medieval Universities, Legal Institutions, and the Commercial Revolution

We present new data documenting medieval Europe’s Commercial Revolution” using information on the establishment of markets in Germany. We use these data to test whether medieval universities played a causal role in expanding economic activity, examining the foundation of Germany’s first universities after 1386 following the Papal Schism. We find that the trend rate of market establishment breaks upward in 1386 and that this break is greatest where the distance to a university shrank most. There is no differential pre-1386 trend associated with the reduction in distance to a university, and there is no break in trend in 1386 where university proximity did not change. These results are not affected by excluding cities close to universities or cities belonging to territories that included universities. Universities provided training in newly-rediscovered Roman and Canon law; students with legal training served in positions that reduced the uncertainty of trade in medieval Europe. We argue that training in the law, and the consequent development of legal and administrative institutions, was an important channel linking universities and greater economic activity

A parametric study of motor starting for a 2- to 10-kilowatt Brayton power system

A study of the motor starting of a Brayton cycle power system was conducted to provide estimates of system sensitivity to several controllable parameters. These sensitivity estimates were used as a basis for selection of an optimum motor-start scheme to be implemented on the 2- to 10-kilowatt Brayton power system designed and presently under test. The studies were conducted with an analog simulation of the Brayton power system and covered a range of frequencies from 400 Hz (33 percent design) to 1200 Hz (design), voltage-to-frequency ratios of 0.050 (50 percent design) to 0.100 (design), turbine-inlet temperatures of 800 K (1440 R, 70 percent design) to 1140 K (2060 deg R, design), and prestart pressure levels of 14.5 psia to 29.0 psia. These studies have shown the effect of selected system variables on motor starting. The final selection of motor-start variables can therefore be made on the basis of motor-start inverter complexity, battery size and weight, desired steady-state pressure level after startup, and other operational limitations. In general, the study showed the time required for motor starting to be inversely proportional to motor frequency, voltage, turbine-inlet temperature, and pressure level. An increase in any of these parameters decreases startup time