Public Goods Institutions, Human Capital, and Growth: Evidence from German History

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dittmar, Jeremiah E.; Meisenzahl, Ralf R.
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdz002
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 959-996
• 关键词: economic-development; state capacity; reformation; Europe; performance; lutheran; origins

摘要

What are the origins and consequences of the state as a provider of public goods? We study public goods provision established through new laws in German cities during the 1500s. Cities that adopted the laws subsequently began to differentially produce and attract human capital and to grow faster. Legal change occurred where ideological competition introduced by the Protestant Reformation interacted with local politics. We study plagues that shifted local politics in a narrow period as sources of exogenous variation in public goods institutions, and find support for a causal interpretation of the relationship between legal change, human capital, and growth.