We revisit Max Weber's hypothesis on the role of Protestantism for economic development. We show that nationalism is …-century Prussia we reject Weber's suggestion that Protestantism mattered due to an "ascetic compulsion to save". Moreover, we find that …

afterlife as two mechanisms by which Protestantism increases suicide propensity. We build a unique micro-regional dataset of 452 … Protestantism around Wittenberg, our instrumental-variable model finds that Protestantism had a substantial positive effect on …

Protestantism is associated with economic freedom, Islam is not, with Catholicism in between. The Protestant ethic requires economic … that Protestantism is most conducive to economic freedom. …

This paper uses recently discovered data on nearly 300 Prussian counties in 1816 to show that Protestantism led to more … Protestant economic history of Becker and Woessmann (2009), where Protestantism first led to better education, which in turn …. -- education ; Protestantism ; pre-industrialization …

still pervasive. Our instrumental-variable model exploits the concentric dispersion of Protestantism around Wittenberg to … circumvent selectivity bias. Protestantism had a substantial positive effect on suicide in 1816-21 and 1869-71. We address issues …

I present the first database of historical local population figures for all Germany. The German Local Population …-collected and assembled from more than 50 sources. The data reflect 150 years of regional development and disparities in Germany …. For example, East and West Germany are heavily diverging in population since 1945; and the divide was not reversed but …