Devotion and Development: Religiosity, Education, and Economic Progress in Nineteenth-Century France
研究19世纪法国第二次工业革命期间，宗教虔诚如何通过阻碍技术教育的普及，进而拖累地方经济发展，对理解宗教与长期经济增长的关系有参考价值。
This paper studies when religion can hamper diffusion of knowledge and economic development, and through which mechanism. I examine Catholicism in France during the Second Industrial Revolution (1870–1914). In this period, technology became skill-intensive, leading to the introduction of technical education in primary schools. I find that more religious locations had lower economic development after 1870. Schooling appears to be the key mechanism: more religious areas saw a slower adoption of the technical curriculum and a push for religious education. In turn, religious education was negatively associated with industrial development 10 to 15 years later, when schoolchildren entered the labor market.