%0 Report
%9 EIC working paper series
%A Cassidy, Traviss
%A Dincecco, Mark
%A Onorato, Massimiliano Gaetano
%D 2015
%F eprints:2728
%I IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca
%K Keywords: warfare, cities, political and economic development, Europe - JEL codes: C20, O10, N40, N90, P48, R11
%N 6
%T The Economic Legacy of Warfare: Evidence from European Regions
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2728/
%X Historical warfare in Europe inflicted numerous costs on rural populations. To reduce  such costs, rural populations relocated behind the relative safety of urban fortifications.  We argue that war-related urbanization had positive consequences for long-run regional  economic development. We geocode the locations of more than 600 conflicts in early  modern Europe. We find a positive and significant relationship between historical conflict  exposure and regional economic development today. Our results are robust to a wide  range of econometric techniques, alternative samples, and economic outcomes. Human  capital accumulation stands out as one channel through which war-related urbanization  translated into regional economic development. Our results highlight the military origins  of Europe’s wealthy urban belt
%Z Updated on March 2016