Identity and Institutional Change: Evidence from First Names in Germany, 1700–1850

Matthias Weigand, Cathrin Mohr and Davide Cantoni

No 20715, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: How does culture respond to institutional change? We study the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire (1789–1815), when half of Central Europe changed rulers. Using 44 million birth records from hundreds of cities between 1700 and 1850, we measure cultural traits in real time. Cities that experienced ruler change saw greater naming turnover, dispersion, and novelty. We construct control groups using diplomatic records to isolate these effects, which emerged immediately and persisted. The collapse of hegemonic authority weakened state-aligned identities while strengthening religiosity and nationalism. These shifts undermined subsequent state building, highlighting challenges of ideological integration after regime change.

JEL-codes: N33 P16 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP20715 (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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20715

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP20715

Access Statistics for this paper

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