Buonanno, Paolo; Cinnirella, Francesco; Harka, Elona; … - 2024
Access to useful knowledge is crucial for fostering modern economic growth. We show, for the first time, that knowledge … accumulated and stored in monasteries was useful for innovation. In 1866, anticlerical legislation in Italy led to the suppression … a significant increase in innovation. The effect is driven by the increase in the number of manuscripts in previously …