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Religion, division of labor and conflict : anti-semitism in Germany over 600 years
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Becker, Sascha O. and Pascali, Luigi (2019) Religion, division of labor and conflict : anti-semitism in Germany over 600 years. American Economic Review, 109 (5). pp. 1764-1804. doi:10.1257/aer.20170279
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20170279
Abstract
We study the role of economic incentives in shaping the co-existence 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 1) 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; 2) 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.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Antisemitism -- Economic aspects, Antisemitism -- History, Division of labor, Germany -- Ethnic relations -- Economic aspects, Christianity and antisemitism -- Germany -- History, Moneylenders -- History | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | American Economic Review | ||||||
| Publisher: | American Economic Association | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0002-8282 | ||||||
| Official Date: | May 2019 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 109 | ||||||
| Number: | 5 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1764-1804 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1257/aer.20170279 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Publisher Statement: | Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 by the American Economic Association. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of American Economic Association publications for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage and that copies show this notice on the first page or initial screen of a display along with the full citation, including the name of the author. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than AEA must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. The author has the right to republish, post on servers, redistribute to lists and use any component of this work in other works. For others to do so requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Permissions may be requested from the American Economic Association Administrative Office by going to the Contact Us form and choosing "Copyright/Permissions Request" from the menu. Copyright © 2018 AEA | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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