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Law, human capital, and the emergence of free city-states in medieval Italy

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Listed:
  • Marianna Belloc
  • Francesco Drago
  • Roberto Galbiati

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper considers how the foundation of the first universities in Italy affected the emergence of free city-states (the communes) in the period 1000–1300 CE. Exploiting a panel dataset of 121 cities, we show that the time variant distance of the sample cities to their closest university is inversely correlated with the probability of their transition to communal institutions. Our evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the medieval universities provided the useful juridical knowledge and skills for building legal capacity and developing communal institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Marianna Belloc & Francesco Drago & Roberto Galbiati, 2023. "Law, human capital, and the emergence of free city-states in medieval Italy," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04278818, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-04278818
    DOI: 10.1007/s10657-023-09779-4
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04278818
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutional change Education Human capital accumulation Communal movement. JEL CODES: I20 I23 K01 N33; Institutional change; Education; Human capital accumulation; Communal movement. JEL CODES: I20; I23; K01; N33;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • K00 - Law and Economics - - General - - - General (including Data Sources and Description)
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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