My dissertation examines the economic mechanisms underlying the Reformation and the advent of printing technology as well as their impact on literacy and economic development. One chapter studies the diffusion of early modern ideas and challenges existing research's conclusion that Protestantism promoted economic prosperity through education and literacy. Another chapter investigates the economic dimensions of 16th-century individuals' self-selection into Protestantism and the implications for assessing the Reformation's impact. My current project studies the early modern printing industry. Specifically, how did printing technology's economic characteristics shape the market structure for printed books and create incentives and constraints for firm entry, exit, and production decisions? Movable-type printing differed from its predecessor, manuscript production, in having increasing returns of scale, high fixed costs and upfront financing needs, limited ability to customize products, and a different business model. Using the most comprehensive data to date on early modern book production, I seek to understand these economic features' impact on industry concentration, firm churn, the nature of competition, and firms' product choices in this industry.
