IdEP Seminar "Science under Inquisition: The allocation of talent in early modern Europe ", Francesco Drago

We study how an ideologically repressive authority, the Roman (or Italian) Inquisition, affected high-talent individuals. Descriptive analysis produces prima facie evidence that after its establishment in 1542, notable individuals born in Roman Inquisition states became less likely to undertake scientific careers. We then build and estimate a structural dynamic model of occupational and location choices to investigate causal pathways.