PRINTING AND PROTESTANTS: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE ROLE OF PRINTING IN THE REFORMATION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rubin, Jared
• 署名单位: Chapman University System; Chapman University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00368
• 发表日期: 2014-05
• 页码: 270-286
• 关键词: economic-growth; rise; restrictions; merchants; education; religion; HISTORY; Europe; luther

摘要

The causes of the Protestant Reformation have long been debated. This paper seeks to revive and econometrically test the theory that the spread of the Reformation is linked to the spread of the printing press. I test this theory by analyzing data on the spread of the press and the Reformation at the city level. An econometric analysis that instruments for omitted variable bias with a city's distance from Mainz, the birthplace of printing, suggests that cities with at least one printing press by 1500 were at minimum 29 percentage points more likely to be Protestant by 1600.