Felix Schaff

From September 2026, I will join Bocconi University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences.
I’m very grateful for the support I received during the process and look forward to this next chapter.

Do the preindustrial roots of gender inequality lie in exogenous forces or also in human institutions? “Dividing the Spoils: Inheritance Institutions and Gender Inequality before Industrialization” @felixschaff.bsky.social @cepr.org ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬‬
cepr.org/publications...

Findings in 3 lines:
1️⃣ Inequality rose: the poorest lost out (not due to Weber’s “Protestant ethic”).
2️⃣ Mechanism: Catholic poor relief = universal; Protestant relief = generous but exclusionary.
3️⃣ Modest economic growth in Protestant areas couldn’t offset losses → poorer classes ended up worse off.

The unequal spirit of the Protestant Reformation: particularism and wealth distribution in early modern Germany - Journal of Economic Growth This paper assesses the impact of the Protestant Reformation on wealth distribution and inequality in confessionally divided Germany, between 1400 and 1800. The Reformation expanded social welfare, bu...

NEW PAPER in JEconGrowth 👁

What did the Protestant Reformation do to wealth & inequality?

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

(This project goes back to my job market days @lseechist.bsky.social — glad to finally see it published!)

What does history tell us about trade barriers to favour domestic interest-groups? On guilds and trade in medieval Europe, check out this BBC series, broadcast again this week. @BBCRadio4 @OxfordESH @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social #echist www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

The Le Pen ruling is good for liberal democracy, writes Tarik Abou-Chadi The Oxford professor says it shouldn’t matter whether the verdict emboldens the hard right or not

Writing in The Economist, @politicsoxford.bsky.social's @tabouchadi.bsky.social i argues that the Le Pen ruling is good for liberal democracy: ow.ly/ZCwv50VCpE4

Sheilagh Ogilvie on Epidemics, Guilds, and the Persistence of Bad Institutions (Ep. 237) What 700 years of pandemic responses reveal about institutional effectiveness

Had fun podcasting with Tyler Cowen on “Controlling Contagion”, guilds, and the persistence of bad institutions @PrincetonUPress @OxfordESH @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social
conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/she...

Apply for a 3-year PhD position (75%) in our DFG project on the triangle of German Democratic Capitalism w/ @sebastiankohl.bsky.social and @trgn.bsky.social What is the interplay between the German growth model, housing & voting behavior? How did industrial change affect inequality?

Join my new Public Economics team at @unileipzig.bsky.social! A 100% PhD/Postdoc position with teaching and a 75% PhD position in a DFG research project on the triangle of growth, housing and voting in Germany with @sebastiankohl.bsky.social & @trgn.bsky.social. Apply until Feb 28

Controlling Contagion How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.

Happy to say my new book, “Controlling Contagion”, comes out next month. 700 years of tackling pandemics. Not all bad news…

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Poverty in Germany from the Black Death until the Beginning of Industrialization This paper provides macro-level estimates of the prevalence of poverty in preindustrial Germany, from the Black Death to the onset of industrializatio…

Poverty in Germany from the Black Death until the Beginning of Industrialization
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Paper in Explorations in Economic History by @guidoalfani.bsky.social, #NuffieldCollege Non-Stipendiary Research Fellow Victoria Gierok and Felix Schaff #EconSky #EconomicHistory

Poverty in Germany from the Black Death until the Beginning of Industrialization This paper provides macro-level estimates of the prevalence of poverty in preindustrial Germany, from the Black Death to the onset of industrializatio…

New work by @guidoalfani.bsky.social et al., "Poverty in Germany from the Black Death until the beginning of industrialization," Explorations in Economic History, 2024. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Expands Alfani's findings that the greater economic equality after the Black Death was real.

Special Issue on New Data Frontiers in German Economic History Volume 25, issue 4 of the journal German Economic Review was published in 2024.

GER special issue on new data frontiers in German Economic History, with excellent contributions on population and fertility, innovation and patenting, foreign trade, financial markets, and economic inequality 👇
www.degruyter.com/journal/key/...

If you are interested in working with historical German data, this special issue of the German Economic Review gives an overview of existing research and available dataset, including our article on patent data (co-author: Jochen Streb):

www.degruyter.com/journal/key/...

Great, danke 🙏

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Thank you Ben 🙏

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Great, thank you Pavithra!

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Hi, can you please add me. Many thanks 🙏

Hi can you please add me to this group. Thank you 🙏