Public goods institutions, human capital, and growth: evidence from German history

Dittmar, Jeremiah E. ORCID: 0000-0002-3930-4496 and Meisenzahl, Ralf R. (2020) Public goods institutions, human capital, and growth: evidence from German history. Review of Economic Studies, 87 (2). 959 - 996. ISSN 0034-6527

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Abstract

What are the origins and consequences of the state as a provider of public goods? We study public goods provision established through new laws in German cities during the 1500s. Cities that adopted the laws subsequently began to differentially produce and attract human capital and to grow faster. Legal change occurred where ideological competition introduced by the Protestant Reformation interacted with local politics. We study plagues that shifted local politics in a narrow period as sources of exogenous variation in public goods institutions, and find support for a causal interpretation of the relationship between legal change, human capital, and growth.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://academic.oup.com/restud
Additional Information:	© 2019 The Authors
Divisions:	Economics Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DD Germany H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education N - Economic History > N1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations > N13 - Europe: Pre-1913 O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
Date Deposited:	11 Dec 2018 12:48
Last Modified:	15 Nov 2024 04:54
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/91195

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