Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16241
Authors: Morgan Kelly
Abstract: Squicciarini (AER, 2020) finds that the parts of France with the most refractory clergy during the Revolution had the lowest industrial employment in 1901, and concludes that Catholicism retarded development. However, because the richest regions were the ones that industrialized, whereas the poorest ones were the most devout, the relationship may be confounded by living standards. If we add a range of simple controls for living standards the claimed result immediately disappears, as it does if alternative measures of religiosity are employed. Regarding education, I find that Catholic schools were established in areas that historically had the fewest public schools and the lowest enrolment of girls relative to boys. Instead of simply indoctrinating children, religious orders appear to have provided a basic education in impoverished places where it was otherwise unavailable, for girls especially.
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Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Higher share of refractory clergy (Z12) | Lower industrial employment (J69) |
| Living standards (I31) | Lower industrial employment (J69) |
| Controls for living standards (I31) | Disappearance of negative relationship between Catholicism and industrialization (N93) |
| Alternative measures of religiosity (Z12) | Disappearance of negative relationship between Catholicism and industrialization (N93) |
| Catholic schools (I29) | Educational void filling rather than hindering industrial progress (O39) |