Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/296104 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11015
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Access to useful knowledge is crucial for fostering modern economic growth. We show, for the first time, that knowledge accumulated and stored in monasteries was useful for innovation. In 1866, anticlerical legislation in Italy led to the suppression of religious orders, the expropriation of their properties, and the transfer of their manuscripts to local public libraries. From a contemporary survey on public libraries, we construct a unique dataset on municipalities which received monastic volumes. This information is then linked to newly digitized annual data on patents issued in Italy between 1863 and 1883. Difference-in-differences estimates show that municipalities exposed to an influx of monastic manuscripts experienced a significant increase in innovation. The effect is driven by the increase in the number of manuscripts in previously existing libraries. We show that the innovation advantage also persisted in the long run and had no impact on human capital.
Subjects: 
books
manuscripts
knowledge
religion
monastery
libraries
patents
JEL: 
N33
O30
Z12
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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