Religion, Longevity, and Cooperation: The Case of the Craft Guild

Gary Richardson and Michael McBride ()

No 14004, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: When the mortality rate is high, repeated interaction alone may not sustain cooperation, and religion may play an important role in shaping economic institutions. This insight explains why during the fourteenth century, when plagues decimated populations and the church promoted the doctrine of purgatory, guilds that bundled together religious and occupational activities dominated manufacturing and commerce. During the sixteenth century, the disease environment eased, and the Reformation dispelled the doctrine of purgatory, necessitating the development of new methods of organizing industry. The logic underlying this conclusion has implications for the study of institutions, economics, and religion throughout history and in the developing world today.

JEL-codes: D02 D43 L1 L15 L2 L22 L23 N34 N64 N74 N84 N94 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-hpe and nep-soc
Note: DAE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Richardson, Gary & McBride, Michael, 2009. "Religion, longevity, and cooperation: The case of the craft guild," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 172-186, August.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14004.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Religion, longevity, and cooperation: The case of the craft guild (2009)
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:nbr:nberwo:14004

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14004

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().