Pre-reformation roots of the protestant ethic 2010-2015

Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck and Bentzen, Jeanet and Dalgaard, Carl-Johan and Sharp, Paul (2020). Pre-reformation roots of the protestant ethic 2010-2015. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854226

Data description (abstract)

This collection consists of a mixture of historical and survey-based datasets which enabled the testing of the Protestant work ethic having a pre-reformation origin in the Catholic Order of Cistercians. The first group of datasets (in “england.zip”) relate to the first empirical exercise of the paper which shows that the presence of Cistercian monasteries in England (founded between 1128 and 1437) are correlated with productivity growth between 1377 and 1600/1801 after taking into account various controls and potential endogeneity in the location of the monasteries. The county-level data (obtained from various sources mentioned in the paper) includes: historical information on the presence of Cistercian monasteries; estimates of population density (as a Malthusian proxy for productivity); access to water, coal, land quality, literacy rates, roman roads, suitability of the land for pasture (as controls); the location of Royal forests (as an instrument to account for endogeneity).
The second group of datasets (in “europe.zip”) relate to the second empirical exercise of the paper which demonstrates that the productivity effects of Cistercian monasteries has persisted to the present day across European regions (NUTS-2), particularly Catholic regions (where the effect of Cistercian monasteries is less likely to be confounded with the effect of the Reformation). Productivity is measured by two relevant items from the European Values survey (2008-10 wave): (1) do you think valuing ‘hard work’ is an important trait for children to learn at home; (2) do you think ‘thrift, saving money and things’ is an important trait for children to learn at home.

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