• DOI:10.1086/339721
Corpus ID: 152651397

An Economic Analysis of the Protestant Reformation

@article{RobertBEkelund2002AnEA,
  title={An Economic Analysis of the Protestant Reformation},
  author={Jr. Robert B. Ekelund and R. H{\'e}bert and R. Tollison},
  journal={Journal of Political Economy},
  year={2002},
  volume={110},
  pages={646 - 671}
}

• Robert B. Ekelund, Jr., R. Hébert, R. Tollison
• Published 2002
• Economics
• Journal of Political Economy

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… Expand