Assist. Prof. Mara Squicciarini, Ph.D.

Religiosity and Economic Development

In a recent paper, Mara Squicciarini studied the relationship between religiosity and economic development, focusing on a crucial phase of modern economic growth, the Second Industrial Revolution (1870–1914) in France. During this period, technology became skill-intensive, leading to the introduction of technical education in primary schools. At the same time, the Catholic Church was pushing for religious content of schooling and acted as a barrier for the introduction of the technical curriculum. Religiosity, thus, played a key role in the local implementation of national education policies, and she determined that French districts with more Catholic schools had lower economic development about 10–15 years later, when school-aged children would enter the labour market. Her study concluded that the relationship between religion and economic development can vary over time, becoming negative when religious norms hinder the adoption of new ideas and innovative activities. Ms Squicciarini collected detailed historical data on religiosity, education, and economic outcomes in the French National Archives in Paris.

Ms Squiccciarini’s research analyses the role of culture religion, and human capital for diffusion of knowledge and economic progress. While visiting CES, she intends to pursue her research on the role of religion and human capital for economic development.

Ms Squiccciarini’s research has appeared in journals such as Science, Nature and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. She is currently working on an NSF Project entitled “Firm Dynamics and Productivity Growth during the Industrial Revolution” with Reka Juhasz and Nico Voigtländer. She is the editor (with J. Swinnen) of the volume The Economics of Chocolate, Oxford University Press, 2016.

Mara Squicciarini is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Bocconi University and a Research Affiliate at the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (IGIER) and at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). She holds a joint Masters degree in Economics from Bocconi University and Université Catholique de Louvain. Her PhD is from the University of Leuven (2014) and she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and Visiting Researcher at Stanford University and at UCLA (Anderson School of Management).