Early Modern Academies, Universities and Growth

Chiara Zanardello
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Chiara Zanardello: UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

No 2024012, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: Knowledge production is vital to modern progress, but what about the past? Pre-industrial European academic institutions are often assumed to have been flawed, with misallocated resources and talent. In this paper, I examine the role of academies, dynamic and scientifically oriented institutions that emerged between 1650 and 1800. Using new data on historical European academia and advanced difference-in-difference methods, I find that academies contributed to long-term urban growth. Exploiting individual-level data on scholars, I further show that literary academies had no long-term effect, whereas scientific academies led to persistent growth. Finally, I demonstrate that academies had positive spillover effects, both on the growth of neighboring cities and on the quality of pre-existing universities. Altogether, I provide the first empirical evidence of the pivotal role scientific academies played in Europe’s economic growth.

Keywords: Academies; universities; human capital; growth; science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 N13 N23 N33 O31 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-11-14
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2024012

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