Séminaire BSE – programme 1
Senior Post-Doctoral Research Associate
University of Bristol – Business School
A Light Bulb Goes On: Religiosity and the Adoption of Electrical Technologies in 19th century France
(Georgios Tsiachtsiras, Sergio Petralia, Ernest Miguelez , Rosina Moreno)
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of religiosity on the adoption of early electrical innova-tions in France from 1890 to 1914. Using a novel geo-referenced database of French patents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Oÿce (1838-1960), we assess the influence of the Catholic Church’s anti-scientific stance. Our results show that a one standard deviation in-crease in religiosity corresponds to a 1.1 decline in electrical patents. Education does not appear to be the main factor, but societal progressiveness partially explains these findings. We also link early electrical innovation to the later development of computer and communi-cation technologies.
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