A novel dataset on a culture of cooperation and inclusive political institutions in 90 European historical regions observed between 1000 and 1600

Abstract

A culture of cooperation, which is the implicit reward from cooperating in any prisoner's dilemma and investment types of activity, and inclusive political institutions, which enable the citizenry to better select public-spirited representatives and check their decisions, are key for economic development. To foster research on the determinants and impact of these institutions, we illustrate a novel data set employed in [1] and [4] and gathering a measure of the activity of the Cistercians and the Franciscans, which is a proxy for the citizens' culture, and a constraints on the elite's decision-making power score, which is a proxy for the inclusiveness of political institutions, for a panel of 90 European historical regions spanning the 1000–1600 period.