Research

Articles in Refereed Journals

Flow of Ideas: Economic Societies and the Rise of Useful Knowledge (with Erik Hornung and Jiulius Koshnick) [CEPR DP 17442]. Conditionally accepted at the Economic Journal.

Structural Change, Elite Capitalism, and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation (with Quamrul Ashraf, Oded Galor, Boris Gershman and Erik Hornung), Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming . [DOI] [Last version]

Islam and Human Capital in Historical Spain (with Alireza Naghavi and Giovanni Prarolo), Journal of Economic Growth, 28: 225-257, 2023 [DOI] [Last version]

Prussia Disaggregated: The Demography of its Universe of Localities in 1871 (with Sascha O. Becker), Journal of Demographic Economics, 2020, 86: 259-290 [DOI] [Last version]

Further Evidence of Within-Marriage Fertility Control in Pre-Transitional England (with Marc Klemp and Jacob Weisdorf), Demography, 2019, 56(4): 1557-1572 [DOI] [Last version]

Nation Building: The Role of Central Spending in Education (with Ruth Schueler), Explorations in Economic History, 2018, 67(1): 18-39 [Leading article] [DOI] [Last version]

The Role of Human Capital and Innovation in Economic Development: Evidence from Post-Malthusian Prussia (with Jochen Streb), Journal of Economic Growth, 2017, 22(2): 193-227 [DOI] [Last version]

Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England (with Marc Klemp and Jacob Weisdorf), Demography, 2017, 54(2): 413-436 (Leading article) [DOI] [Last version] [Replication files]

Landownership Concentration and the Expansion of Education (with Erik Hornung), Journal of Development Economics, 2016, 121: 135-152 [DOI]

iPEHD - The ifo Prussian Economic History Database (with Sascha O. Becker, Erik Hornung and Ludger Woessmann), Historical Methods, 2014, 47(2): 57-66 [DOI]

Does Women's Education Affect Fertility? Evidence from Pre-Demographic Transition Prussia (with Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Woessmann), European Review of Economic History, 2013, 17(1): 24-44 [DOI]

The Effect of Investment in Children's Education on Fertility in 1816 Prussia (with Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Woessmann), Cliometrica, 2012, 6(1): 29-44 [DOI]

Why Does Height Matter for Educational Attainment? Evidence from German Children (with Marc Piopiunik and Joachim Winter), Economics and Human Biology, 2011, 9(4): 407-418 [DOI]

The Trade-off between Fertility and Education: Evidence from before the Demographic Transition (with Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Woessmann), Journal of Economic Growth, 2010, 15(3): 177-204 (Leading article) [DOI]

Optimists or Pessimists? A Reconsideration of Nutritional Status in Britain, 1740-1865, European Review of Economic History, 2008, 12(3): 325-354 [DOI]

On the Road to Industrialisation: Nutritional Status in Saxony, 1690-1850, Cliometrica, 2008, 2(3): 229-257 [DOI]

European Heights in the Early 18th Century (with John Komlos), Vierteljahrschrift fuer Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 2007, 94(3): 271-284

Book Chapters

"Education systems and human capital accumulation" (with Sascha Becker and Erik Hornung), in U. Pfister and N. Wolf (eds.), An Economic History of the First German Unification, Routledge, 2023.

"Bildung, Entwicklung und Nationsbildung im 19. Jahrhundert" (with Sascha O. Becker and Erik Hornung), in U. Pfister, J.-O. Hesse, M. Spoerer, and N. Wolf (eds.), Deutschland 1871, Mohr Siebeck, Tuebingen, 2021, 313-333.

"Marital Fertility and Investment in Children's Education", in C. Diebolt, A. Rijpma, S. Carmichael, S. Dilli and C. Stoermer (eds.), Cliometrics of the Family, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2019, Chapter 3, 33-54.

"Land Inequality, Education, and Marriage: Empirical Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Prussia" (with Erik Hornung), in M. Cervellati and U. Sunde (Eds.), Demographic Change and Long Run Development, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2017, Chapter 8, 183-220 [CESifo WP 6072]

"Child Labor" (with G. Toniolo, G. Vecchi), in G. Vecchi (Ed.), Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards, Oxford University Press, 2017, Chapter 4, 143-174.

Lavoro minorile (with G. Toniolo, G. Vecchi), in G. Vecchi (Ed.), In ricchezza e in poverta'. Il benessere degli italiani dall'Unita' ad oggi, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2011, capitolo 4, 131-158.

Working Papers

Books Go Public: The Consequences of the Expropriation of Monastic Libraries on Innovation (with Paolo Buonanno, Elona Harka, and Marcello Puca) [CEPR DP 18926, last version] 

Froebel's Gifts: How The Kindergarten Movement Changed the American Family (with Philipp Ager) [CEPR DP 15146; ungated version]

Religious Tolerance as Engine of Innovation (with Jochen Streb), [CESifo WP 6797; CEPR DP 12466]

The Cost of Decentralization: Linguistic Polarization and the Provision of Education (with Ruth Schueler), [CESifo WP 5894]

Work in Progress

The Making of an American: Public Kindergartens and the Assimilation of Immigrant Children (with Philipp Ager, Katherine Eriksson, and Viktor Malein)

Norms, Guilt, and Religion: Public Good Contribution among Catholics and Protestants (with Sebastiano Della Lena, Elena Manzoni, and Fabrizio Panebianco)