Grain Price Fluctuations and Witch Hunting in Bavaria

Joerg Baten () and Ulrich Woitek ()

Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Glasgow

Abstract: Based on the data set of Behringer (1997), we develop and test competing models of the determinants of witch hunting in Bavaria in the period 1345-1750, which explain the cyclicity as well as the variation over time from the 14th to the 18th century. Our main focus is on economic factors and their influence on the intensity of prosecution. We analyse this issue by quantifying the importance of grain price fluctuations for the frequency of witch trials/accusations, taking into account other possible explanations like the impact of confession and regional characteristics.

Date: 2001-03
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_22273_en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gla:glaewp:2001_9

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Glasgow
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Jeanette Findlay ().