Islam and human capital in historical Spain

Francesco Cinnirella, Alireza Naghavi and Giovanni Prarolo ()
Additional contact information
Giovanni Prarolo: University of Bologna

Journal of Economic Growth, 2023, vol. 28, issue 2, No 2, 225-257

Abstract: Abstract We use a unique dataset on Muslim domination between 711-1492 and literacy in 1860 for about 7500 municipalities to study the long-run impact of Islam on human-capital in historical Spain. Reduced-form estimates show a large and robust negative relationship between length of Muslim rule and literacy. We argue that, contrary to local arrangements set up by Christians, Islamic institutions discouraged the rise of the merchant class, blocking local forms of self-government and thereby persistently hindering demand for education. Indeed, results show that a longer Muslim domination in Spain is negatively related to the share of merchants, whereas neither later episodes of trade nor differences in jurisdictions and different stages of the Reconquista affect our main results. Consistent with our interpretation, panel estimates show that cities under Muslim rule missed-out on the critical juncture to establish self-government institutions.

Keywords: Muslim rule; Education; Literacy; Self-government; Merchant class; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I25 N33 O43 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10887-022-09220-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Islam and Human Capital in Historical Spain (2020)
Working Paper: Islam and Human Capital in Historical Spain (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jecgro:v:28:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s10887-022-09220-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... th/journal/10887/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10887-022-09220-6

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Growth is currently edited by Oded Galor

More articles in Journal of Economic Growth from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().