Data and Code for: Devotion and Development: Religiosity, Education, and Economic Progress in 19th-Century France

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Mara P. Squicciarini, Bocconi University

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Replication			10/26/2020 11:03:AM

Project Citation:

Squicciarini, Mara P. Data and Code for: Devotion and Development: Religiosity, Education, and Economic Progress in 19th-Century France. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2020. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-10-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/E119862V1

Project Description

Summary: 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.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Human capital; Religiosity; Industrialization; France

JEL Classification:
      J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
      N13 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: Europe: Pre-1913
      Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion

Geographic Coverage: France

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Published Versions

V1 [2020-10-26]

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