Religious Orders and Growth through Cultural Change in Pre-Industrial England

Thomas Andersen, Jeanet Bentzen, Carl-Johan Dalgaard and Paul Sharp

DEGIT Conference Papers from DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade

Abstract: We advance the hypothesis that cultural values such as high work ethics and thrift, “the Protestant ethic” according to Max Weber, may have been diffused long before the Reformation, thereby importantly affecting the pre-industrial growth record. The source of pre-Reformation Protestant ethics, according to the proposed theory, was the Catholic Order of Cistercians. Using county-level data for England we find empirically that the frequency of Cistercian monasteries influenced county-level comparative development until 1801; that is, long after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The pre-industrial development of England may thus have been propelled by a process of growth through cultural change.

Keywords: Protestant Ethic; Malthusian population dynamics; economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N13 O11 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2010-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Religious orders and growth through cultural change in pre-industrial England (2012)
Working Paper: Religious Orders and Growth through Cultural Change in Pre-Industrial England (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:deg:conpap:c015_036

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