Research


Working Papers

  • Mathias Bühler, Davide Cantoni, Matthias Weigand
    "City Directories as a Source of Historical Microdata: Progress Report"
    Current draft (March 2024): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Cathrin Mohr, Matthias Weigand
    "Individualism, Identity, and Institutional Stability: Evidence from First Names in Germany, 1700–1850"
    Slides (June 2022): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Felix Hagemeister, Mark Westcott
    "Persistence and Activation of Right-Wing Political Ideology"
    Current draft (May 2020): [pdf]

Publications

  • Davide Cantoni, Cathrin Mohr, Matthias Weigand
    "The Rise of Fiscal Capacity: Administration and State Consolidation in the Holy Roman Empire"
    Forthcoming, Econometrica
    Current draft (February 2024): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Andrew Kao, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman
    "Protests"
    Forthcoming, Annual Review of Economics
    Final draft (February 2024): [pdf]
  • Leonardo Bursztyn, Davide Cantoni, Patricia Funk, Felix Schönenberger, Noam Yuchtman
    "Identifying the Effect of Election Closeness on Voter Turnout: Evidence from Swiss Referenda"
    Forthcoming, Journal of the European Economic Association
    Final draft (April 2023): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Louis-Jonas Heizlsperger, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Y. Jane Zhang
    "The Fundamental Determinants of Protest Participation: Evidence from Hong Kong’s Antiauthoritarian Movement"
    Journal of Public Economics, 211: 104667 (July 2022)
    Original article (open access): [JPubE website]
    Final draft (April 2022): [pdf]
  • Leonardo Bursztyn, Davide Cantoni, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Y. Jane Zhang
    "Persistent Political Engagement: Social Interactions and the Dynamics of Protest Movements"
    American Economic Review: Insights, 3(2): 233–250 (June 2021)
    Original article: [AEA website] [PDF] [Copyright notice] [Online Appendix]
    Final draft (March 2020): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Y. Jane Zhang
    "Protests as Strategic Games: Experimental Evidence from Hong Kong’s Democracy Movement"
    Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(2): 1021–1077 (May 2019)
    Original article (open access): [QJE website]
    Final draft (October 2018): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Jeremiah Dittmar, Noam Yuchtman
    "Religious Competition and Reallocation: The Political Economy of Secularization in the Protestant Reformation"
    Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(4): 2037–2096 (November 2018)
    Original article (open access): [QJE website]
    Latest draft (October 2017): [NBER WP]
  • Davide Cantoni, Yuyu Chen, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Y. Jane Zhang
    "Curriculum and Ideology"
    Journal of Political Economy, 125(2): 338–392 (April 2017)
    Original article: [JPE website]
    Latest draft (October 2015): [pdf]
  • Leonardo Bursztyn, Davide Cantoni
    "A Tear in the Iron Curtain: The Impact of Western Television on Consumption Behavior"
    Review of Economics and Statistics, 91(1): 25–41 (March 2016)
    Original article: [REStat website]
    Latest draft (August 2012): [CEPR WP] or [Munich Econ WP]
  • Davide Cantoni
    "The Economic Effects of the Protestant Reformation: Testing the Weber Hypothesis in the German Lands"
    Journal of the European Economic Association, 13(4): 561–598 (August 2015)
    Original article: [JEEA website]
    Final draft (May 2014): [pdf]
    Supplementary Appendix: [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Noam Yuchtman
    "Medieval Universities, Legal Institutions, and the Commercial Revolution"
    Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(2): 823–887 (May 2014)
    Original article: [QJE website]
    Supplementary Appendix: [pdf]
    Final draft (October 2013): [CESifo WP]
  • Davide Cantoni, Noam Yuchtman
    "The Political Economy of Educational Content and Development: Lessons from History"
    Journal of Development Economics, 104: 233–244 (September 2013)
    Original article: [JDE website]
    Final draft (April 2013): [CESifo WP] or [BEHL WP]
  • Davide Cantoni
    "Adopting a New Religion: The Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany"
    Economic Journal, 122(560): 502–531 (May 2012)
    Original article: [EJ website]
    Final draft (August 2011): [pdf]
  • Daron Acemoglu, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson
    "The Consequences of Radical Reform: The French Revolution"
    American Economic Review, 101(7): 3286–3307 (December 2011)
    Original article: [pdf] or [AER website]

Work in Progress

  • "Historical Contingencies, Econometric Problems: The Analysis of Natural Experiments in Economic History" (with Noam Yuchtman)
  • "Beliefs, Attitudes and Preferences of the Chinese Political Elites" (with Yuyu Chen, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Y. Jane Zhang, David Zweig)
  • "Urbanization in Europe: Regional Variations, 1700–1900"

Other research (Book chapters)

  • Davide Cantoni, Noam Yuchtman
    "Historical Natural Experiments: Bridging Economics and Economic History"
    In: Alberto Bisin and Giovanni Federico (eds.), Handbook of Historical Economics, Academic Press 2021.
    Publisher site: [link]
    Final draft (January 2020): [pdf]
  • Davide Cantoni, Felix Hagemeister, Mark Westcott
    "Voting for the far right in Germany"
    In: Dalia Marin (ed.), Explaining Germany's Exceptional Recovery, CEPR Press (VoxEU.org Books) 2018.
    E-book: [link]
  • Daron Acemoglu, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson
    "From Ancien Regime to Capitalism: The Spread of the French Revolution as a Natural Experiment"
    In: Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson (eds.), Natural Experiments of History, Harvard University Press 2010.
    Publisher site: [link]
    Final draft: [pdf]

Policy and other papers

  • Davide Cantoni
    "China und Hongkong am Scheideweg"
    Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, 21(2): 185–196 (June 2020) [link]
  • Davide Cantoni, Jeremiah Dittmar, Noam Yuchtman
    The religious roots of the secular West: The Protestant Reformation and the allocation of resources in Europe
    voxEU column (October 2017): [link]
  • Davide Cantoni, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman
    Power to the people? China’s policy trilemma in Hong Kong
    LSE Management Blog (October 2017): [link]
  • Davide Cantoni, Felix Hagemeister, Mark Westcott
    Explaining the Alternative für Deutschland party’s electoral success: The shadow of Nazi voting
    voxEU column (September 2017): [link]
  • Davide Cantoni, Yuyu Chen, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, Y. Jane Zhang
    Curriculum and ideology
    voxEU column (May 2014): [link]
  • Davide Cantoni, Noam Yuchtman
    How universities helped transform the medieval world
    voxEU column (May 2012): [link]
  • Davide Cantoni
    "Godly business"
    Foreign Policy, 178 (March/April 2010): [link]
  • Daron Acemoglu, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson, James A. Robinson
    How imposed institutional reforms can work
    voxEU column (July 2009): [link]