Pre‐Reformation Roots of the Protestant Ethic

We hypothesize that cultural appreciation of hard work and thrift, the Protestant ethic according Max Weber, had a pre-Reformation origin. The proximate source of these values was, according to proposed theory, the Catholic Order of Cistercians. In support, we first document an impact from Order on growth within the epicenter of the industrial revolution; English counties that were more to Cistercian monasteries experienced faster productivity growth from the 13th century onwards. with a cultural influence, this impact is also found after the monasteries were dissolved in the 1530s. Second, we find that the values emphasized by Weber are relatively more pervasive in European where Cistercian monasteries were located historically, and that the legacy of the Cistercians can detected in present-day employment rates across European sub-regions.