2002/06/01 by Robert B. Ekelund, Robert F. Hébert, Robert D. Tollison · 1 voice · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Religion and Society Interactions
paper · doi:10.1086/339721
openalex publication_date 2002/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This paper seeks to explain the initial successes and failures of Protestantism on economic grounds. It argues that the medieval Roman Catholic Church, through doctrinal manipulation, the exclusion of rivals, and various forms of price discrimination, ultimately placed members seeking the Z good “spiritual services” on the margin of defection. These monopolistic practices encouraged entry by rival firms, some of which were aligned with civil governments. The paper hypothesizes that Protestant entry was facilitated in emergent entrepreneurial societies characterized by the decline of feudalism and relatively unstable distribution of wealth and repressed in more homogeneous, rent‐seeking societies that were mostly dissipating rather than creating wealth. In these societies the Roman Church was more able to continue the practice of price discrimination. Informal tests of this proposition are conducted by considering primogeniture and urban growth as proxies for wealth stability.