Religion, Division of Labor, and Conflict: Anti-Semitism in Germany over 600 Years

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Becker, Sascha O.; Pascali, Luigi
• 署名单位: University of Warwick; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Pompeu Fabra University; Barcelona School of Economics
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20170279
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1764-1804
• 关键词: BLACK-DEATH; PERSECUTION; ECONOMICS

摘要

We study the role of economic incentives in shaping the coexistence of Jews, Catholics, and Protestants, using novel data from Germany for 1,000+ cities. The Catholic usury ban and higher literacy rates gave Jews a specific advantage in the moneylending sector. Following the Protestant Reformation (1517), the Jews lost these advantages in regions that became Protestant. We show (i) a change in the geography of anti-Semitism with persecutions of Jews and anti-Jewish publications becoming more common in Protestant areas relative to Catholic areas; (ii) a more pronounced change in cities where Jews had already established themselves as moneylenders. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that, following the Protestant Reformation, Jews living in Protestant regions were exposed to competition with the Christian majority, especially in moneylending, leading to an increase in anti-Semitism.