Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247005 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Papers in Economic History No. 74
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
Building on the idea that members of religious communities insure each other against some idiosyncratic risks, we argue that religious communities should be more widespread where populations face greater common risk. Our empirical analysis exploits rainfall risk as a source of common agricultural risk in the nineteenth-century United States. We show that a greater share of the population was organized into religious communities in counties with greater rainfall risk. The link between rainfall risk and membership in religious communities is stronger among more agricultural counties and counties exposed to greater rainfall risk during the growing season.
Subjects: 
Religious community membership
agricultural risk
informal insurance
JEL: 
Z12
O13
N31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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