Economic shocks, inter-ethnic complementarities and the persecution of minorities: Evidence from the Black Death

Noel Johnson (), Mark Koyama and Remi Jebwab ()
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Remi Jebwab: George Washington University
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Remi Jedwab

No 17012, Working Papers from Economic History Society

Abstract: "In this paper we study the Black Death persecutions (1347-1352) against Jews inorder to shed light on the factors determining when a minority group will face perse-cution. We develop a theoretical framework which predicts that negative shocks in-crease the likelihood that minorities are scapegoated and persecuted. By contrast, as theshocks become more severe, persecution probability may actually decrease if there areeconomic complementarities between the majority and minority groups. We compilecity-level data on Black Death mortality and Jewish persecution. At an aggregate levelwe find that scapegoating led to an increase in the baseline probability of a persecution.However, at the city-level, locations which experienced higher plague mortality rateswere less likely to engage in persecutions. Furthermore, persecutions were more likelyin cities with a history of antisemitism (consistent with scapegoating) and less likelyin cities where Jews played an important economic role (consistent with inter-groupcomplementarities)."

Keywords: Ethnic Conflict; Religious Conflict; Minorities; Persecutions; Massacres; Libels; Black Death; Jewish Economic History; Middle Ages; Epidemics; Cities; Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 J15 N33 N43 O1 R1 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17012

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