Data and Code for: Religious Festivals and Economic Development: Evidence from the Timing of Mexican Saint Day Festivals

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Eduardo Montero, University of Chicago; Dean Yang, University of Michigan

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Alix-Garcia and Sellers Dataset			06/16/2022 10:42:AM
IPUMS Data Full			12/07/2022 02:27:PM
geo			02/11/2022 01:38:PM
gis			02/11/2022 01:38:PM
inegi			02/11/2022 01:49:PM
lapop			06/16/2022 10:43:AM
new_spain			02/11/2022 01:50:PM
saint_datasets			02/11/2022 01:50:PM
siap			02/11/2022 01:50:PM

Project Description

Summary: Does variation in how religious festivals are celebrated have economic consequences? We study the economic impacts of the timing of Catholic patron saint day festivals in Mexico. For causal identification, we exploit cross-locality variation in festival dates and in the timing of agricultural seasons. We estimate the impact of “agriculturally-coinciding” festivals (those coinciding with peak planting or harvest months) on long-run economic development of localities. Agriculturally-coinciding festivals lead to lower household income and worse development outcomes overall. These negative effects are likely due to lower agricultural productivity, which inhibits structural transformation out of agriculture. Agriculturally-coinciding festivals may nonetheless persist because they also lead to higher religiosity and social capital.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: [religion; , economic development; , social capital; , mexico; , festivals; ]

JEL Classification:
      F63 Economic Impacts of Globalization: Economic Development
      N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
      O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
      Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion

Geographic Coverage: Mexico

Universe: Households and Municipalities in Mexico

Data Type(s): administrative records data; aggregate data; census/enumeration data; geographic information system (GIS) data

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V2 [2022-12-07]

V1 [2022-09-23]

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Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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