This paper documents the major features of Jewish economic history in the first millennium to explain the distinctive occupational selection of the Jewish people into urban, skilled occupations. We show that many Jews entered urban occupations in the eighth-ninth centuries in the Muslim Empire...

Since the Middle Ages the Jews have been engaged primarily in urban, skilled occupations, such as crafts, trade, finance, and medicine. This distinctive occupational selection occurred between the seventh and the ninth centuries in the Muslim Empire and then it spread to other locations. We...

Die ehemaligen “Stahl-Städte“ Sheffield in Großbritannien und Pittsburgh in den USA kämpfen um Wachstum und den Aufbau einer modernen, wissensbasierten Wirtschaftsstruktur. In den 1970iger und frühen 1980er Jahren erlebte deren traditionelle Industrie einen Niedergang, welche die...