This is a recently published paper (QJE May 2014). Using new data the authors test whether medieval universities played a causal role in expanding economic activity. They use establishment of markets in Germany to measure economic development and distance to Germany’s first universities (founded shortly after 1386) to measure university influence and find the answer is yes (Of course, spatial endogeneity is taken into account). Furthermore, the channel for the impact might be like this: legal institutions are important for development in Medieval Europe and the universities’ establishment allows large scale of training for jurists.
Author: Davide Cantoni and Noam Yuchtman
Link: http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/129/2/823.full.pdf
Comment: Can this strategy be applied in the recent studied topic by Yuyu Chen and Se Yan?
Author: Davide Cantoni and Noam Yuchtman
Link: http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/129/2/823.full.pdf
Comment: Can this strategy be applied in the recent studied topic by Yuyu Chen and Se Yan?