Books Go Public: The Consequences of the Expropriation of Monastic Libraries on Innovation

Paolo Buonanno, Francesco Cinnirella, Elona Harka and Marcello Puca

No 18926, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Access to useful knowledge is crucial for fostering modern economic growth. We show, for the first time, that knowledge accumulated and stored in monasteries was useful for innovation. In 1866, anticlerical legislation in Italy led to the suppression of religious orders, the expropriation of their properties, and the transfer of their manuscripts to local public libraries. From a contemporary survey on public libraries, we construct a unique dataset on municipalities which received monastic volumes. This information is then linked to newly digitized annual data on patents issued in Italy between 1863 and 1883. Difference-in-differences estimates show that municipalities exposed to an influx of monastic manuscripts experienced a significant increase in innovation. The effect is driven by the increase in the number of manuscripts in previously existing libraries. We show that the innovation advantage also persisted in the long run and had no impact on human capital.

Keywords: Patents; Religion; Knowledge; Books; Libraries; Monastery; Manuscripts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N33 O30 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18926 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Books Go Public: The Consequences of the Expropriation of Monastic Libraries on Innovation (2024)
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:cpr:ceprdp:18926

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18926

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().