Adopting a New Religion: The Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany

Davide Cantoni

No 540, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: Using a rich dataset of territories and cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, this paper investigates the determinants of adoption and diffusion of Protestantism as a state religion. A territory's distance to Wittenberg, the city where Martin Luther taught, is a major determinant of adoption. This finding can be explained through a theory of strategic neighborhood interactions: in an uncertain legal context, introducing the Reformation was a risky enterprise for territorial lords, and had higher prospects of success if powerful neighboring states committed to the new faith first. The model is tested in a panel dataset featuring the dates of introduction of the Reformation.

Keywords: Protestantism; Germany; State religions; spatial adoption of policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N34 R38 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-09
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Adopting a New Religion: the Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany (2012)
Working Paper: Adopting a New Religion: The Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany (2012)
Working Paper: Adopting a new religion: The case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:540

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