The Economic Effects of the Protestant Reformation: Testing the Weber Hypothesis in the German Lands
利用1300-1900年272个城市的人口数据，研究发现新教对经济增长没有显著影响，结果稳健且不受数据选择或样本量影响。
Following Max Weber, many theories have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With its religious heterogeneity, the Holy Roman Empire presents an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures of 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find no effects of Protestantism on economic growth. The finding is precisely estimated, robust to the inclusion of various controls, and does not depend on data selection or small sample size. Protestantism has no effect when interacted with other likely determinants of economic development. Instrumental variables estimates, considering the po-tential endogeneity of religious choice, are similar to the OLS results. Version: 2.9.1