Law, Human Capital and the Emergence of Free City-States in Medieval Italy

Marianna Belloc, Francesco Drago and Roberto Galbiati

No 6719, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: In this paper, we study how the birth of the first universities in Italy affected the emergence of the Italian free cities-states (the commune) in the period 1000-1300 a.d. Exploiting a panel dataset of 121 cities, we show that after the foundation of a new university the distance between each city in the sample and the university negatively predicts the timing of the birth of communal institutions in the city. Our evidence is consistent with the idea that universities in the Middle Ages provided the necessary juridical knowledge and skills to build legal capacity and develop broader-based institutions.

Keywords: institutional change; education; human capital accumulation; communal movement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I23 K00 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-knm, nep-law and nep-ure
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Related works:
Journal Article: Law, human capital, and the emergence of free city-states in medieval Italy (2023)
Working Paper: Law, human capital, and the emergence of free city-states in medieval Italy (2023)
Working Paper: Law, human capital, and the emergence of free city-states in medieval Italy (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6719

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