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Data and Code for: Religious Festivals and Economic Development: Evidence from the Timing of Mexican Saint Day Festivals

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Eduardo Montero, University of Chicago; Dean Yang, University of Michigan

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
code			02/11/2022 01:39:PM
data			02/11/2022 01:38:PM
output			02/11/2022 01:38:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	406.6 KB	06/16/2022 06:49:AM

Project Citation:

Montero, Eduardo, and Yang, Dean. Data and Code for: Religious Festivals and Economic Development: Evidence from the Timing of Mexican Saint Day Festivals. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-09-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E161801V1

Project Description

Summary: Does variation in how religious festivals are celebrated have economic consequences? We study the economic impacts of the timing of Catholic patron saint day festivals in Mexico. For causal identification, we exploit cross-locality variation in festival dates and in the timing of agricultural seasons. We estimate the impact of “agriculturally-coinciding” festivals (those coinciding with peak planting or harvest months) on long-run economic development of localities. Agriculturally-coinciding festivals lead to lower household income and worse development outcomes overall. These negative effects are likely due to lower agricultural productivity, which inhibits structural transformation out of agriculture. Agriculturally-coinciding festivals may nonetheless persist because they also lead to higher religiosity and social capital.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: [religion; , economic development; , social capital; , mexico; , festivals; ]

JEL Classification:
      F63 Economic Impacts of Globalization: Economic Development
      N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
      O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
      Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion

Geographic Coverage: Mexico

Time Period(s): 1580 – 2020

Universe: Households and Municipalities in Mexico

Data Type(s): administrative records data; aggregate data; census/enumeration data; geographic information system (GIS) data

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Published Versions

V2 [2022-12-07]

V1 [2022-09-23]

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