TY  - RPRT
N2  - 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
M1  - imt_eic_working_paper
SN  - 2279-6894
PB  - IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca
A1  - Cassidy, Traviss
A1  - Dincecco, Mark
A1  - Onorato, Massimiliano Gaetano
UR  - http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2728/
KW  - Keywords: warfare
KW  -  cities
KW  -  political and economic development
KW  -  Europe - JEL codes: C20
KW  -  O10
KW  -  N40
KW  -  N90
KW  -  P48
KW  -  R11
Y1  - 2015/07//
AV  - public
TI  - The Economic Legacy of Warfare: Evidence from European Regions
EP  - 46
N1  - Updated on March 2016
ID  - eprints2728
ER  -