What a ects the economic and cultural development tracks of societies? We know that large events such as political changes, natural disasters and migration can change a society dramatically at the macro level, but what exactly happens at the individual level? When conditions change, people are...

Building on the idea that religious communities provide mutual insurance against some idiosyncratic risks, we argue that religious membership is more valuable in societies exposed to greater common risk. In our empirical analysis we exploit rainfall risk as a source of common economic risk in...