Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14675
Authors: Francesco Cinnirella; Sascha O. Becker
Abstract: We provide, for the first time, a detailed and comprehensive overview of the demography of more than 50,000 towns, villages, and manors in 1871 Prussia. We study religion, literacy, fertility, and group segregation by location type (town, village, and manor). We find that Jews live predominantly in towns. Villages and manors are substantially segregated by denomination, whereas towns are less segregated. Yet, we find relatively lower levels of segregation by literacy. Regression analyses with county-fixed effects show that a larger share of Protestants is associated with higher literacy rates across all location types. A larger share of Jews relative to Catholics is not significantly associated with higher literacy in towns, but it is in villages and manors. Finally, a larger share of Jews is associated with lower fertility in towns, which is not explained by differences in literacy.
Keywords: Religion; Segregation; Literacy; Fertility; Prussia
JEL Codes: J13; J15; I21; N33; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Larger share of Protestants (N32) | Higher literacy rates (I24) |
| Larger share of Jews (N34) | Lower fertility in towns (J19) |