Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8448
Authors: Sascha O. Becker; Ludger Woessmann
Abstract: We model the effect of Protestant vs. Catholic denomination in an economic theory of suicide, accounting for differences in religious-community integration, views about man?s impact on God?s grace, and the possibility of confessing sins. We test the theory using a unique micro-regional dataset of 452 counties in 19th-century Prussia, when religiousness was 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 of bias from mental illness, misreporting, weather conditions, within-county heterogeneity, religious concentration, and gender composition.
Keywords: Prussian Economic History; Religion; Suicide
JEL Codes: N33; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Protestantism encourages individualism (P12) | lower community integration (R23) |
| lower community integration (R23) | lower utility of living (D11) |
| Protestant doctrine suggests salvation by grace (Z12) | less disutility from suicide (J17) |
| impossibility of confessing suicide sin (Y70) | diversion to other desperate actions (H84) |
| Protestantism (Z12) | suicide rates (I12) |