Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16121
Authors: Umair Khalil; Laura Panza
Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between local religiosity and episodes of persecutionsin a sample of over 2,100 European cities during 1100-1850. We introduce a novel proxy formeasuring local religion: the cult of saints in early Western Christianity. Our findings show thatcities with an established cult of a saint are associated with a 16 and 10 percentage points (pp)increase in the likelihood of witch trials and witch killings and an 11 pp increased likelihood ofJewish persecutions. However, cities with more progressive gender norms, measured by the presenceof a female saint cult, are less likely to persecute witches compared to male-only saint cities.Our baseline relationship persists after controlling for a range of city-level economic, geographicand institutional characteristics and after accounting for other major confounders. We find twoplausible mechanisms behind the saints-persecution relationship: (i) changes in norms inducedby longer exposure to Christianity; and (ii) proximity of religious groups due to congruence ofreligious festivities.
Keywords: minority persecution; religious institutions; religiosity; middle ages
JEL Codes: D74; N33; N43; N93; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| longer exposure to Christianity (Z12) | changes in societal norms (Z13) |
| proximity of religious groups (Z12) | changes in societal norms (Z13) |
| cult of a saint (Z12) | likelihood of witch trials (K41) |
| cult of a saint (Z12) | witch killings (B13) |
| cult of a saint (Z12) | likelihood of Jewish persecutions (N34) |
| female saints (Z12) | likelihood of witch trials (K41) |