Printing and Protestants: reforming the economics of the Reformation

Jared Rubin

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The causes of the Protestant Reformation have long been debated. This paper attempts to revive and econometrically test the theory that the spread of the Reformation is linked to the spread of the printing press. The proposed causal pathway is that the printing press permitted the ideas of the Reformation to reach a broader audience. I test this hypothesis by analyzing data on the spread of the press and the Reformation at the city level. An econometric analysis which instruments for omitted variable bias suggests that within the Holy Roman Empire, cities within 10 miles of a printing press by 1500 were 57.4 percentage points more likely to be Protestant by 1600. These results are robust, though the effects are weaker, across Western Europe. The analysis also suggests that the early spread of press affected religious choice into the 19th century.

Keywords: Printing Press; Protestant Reformation; Information Technology; Revolt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N33 N73 O33 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-06-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/31267/1/MPRA_paper_31267.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/34294/3/MPRA_paper_34294.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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