From Farmers to Merchants: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish Economic History

Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein ()

No 670, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Since the Middle Ages the Jews have been engaged primarily in urban, skilled occupations, such as crafts, trade, finance, and medicine. This distinctive occupational selection occurred between the seventh and the ninth centuries in the Muslim Empire and then it spread to other locations. We argue that this transition was the outcome of the widespread literacy among Jews prompted by an educational reform in the first century CE. Based on the growing nexus between education and Judaism in the first half of the millennium, we build a model in which Jewish men choose education, occupation, religion, and location. The model predicts that when urbanization expands (as it did in the Muslim Empire), Jews move to new cities due to their comparative advantage in urban, skilled occupations. Furthermore, before urbanization a proportion of Jewish farmers are predicted to convert to other religions. The predictions of the model regarding conversions, migrations, and reduction in the size of the Jewish population are consistent with the historical evidence about the first millennium provided by the historians. Hence, our study presents evidence for the long-term economic implications of changes in social norms.

Keywords: first millennium; occupational choice; Jewish economic history; religion; human capital; social norms; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 J2 N3 O1 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2002-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-lab and nep-mic
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Published - published in: Journal of the European Economic Association, 2007, 5 (5), 885-926,

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Related works:
Working Paper: From Farmers to Merchants:A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish Economic History (2005)
Working Paper: From Farmers to Merchants: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish Economic History (2003)
Working Paper: From Farmers to Merchants: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish Economic History (2003)
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