Data

Princes and Townspeople

"Princes and Townspeople" is an ongoing project to transcribe, digitize, organize, and geocode historical data on the development of German cities of the Holy Roman Empire. The core source are the encyclopedic volumes of the Deutsches Städtebuch edited by Erich Keyser. These data have been collected for and used in various projects (Cantoni and Yuchtman, 2014; Cantoni, Dittmar, Yuchtman, 2018; etc.). The goal of "Princes and Townspeople" is to make these (and other) data accessible to the public, accompanied with a careful documentation of the data collection process.

  • 1: City Locations and Border Maps
    • Dataverse page: [link]; Documentation: [pdf]
    • Contains: Names, alternate names, ID codes and coordinates for the 2,390 cities in the Deutsches Städtebuch. Shape files of the regions surrounding the cities.
  • 2: Territorial Histories
    • Dataverse page: [link]; Documentation: [pdf]
    • Contains: Territorial history of the 2,390 cities in the Deutsches Städtebuch ("who rules over the city?"). Partial release of the dataset. Currently covers only the years 1400, 1450–1850 in 100-year intervals.
  • 3: Town Charters and First Mentions
    • Dataverse page: [link]; Documentation: [pdf]
    • Contains: Years of foundation, of first mentioning, and legal status (town charters, legal families) of the 2,390 cities in the Deutsches Städtebuch
  • 4: Markets
    • Dataverse page: [link]; Documentation: [pdf]
    • Contains: Markets (years of foundation, number, types) in the 2,390 cities of the Deutsches Städtebuch
  • 5: Construction Activity
    • Dataverse page: [link]; Documentation: [pdf]
    • Contains: Construction events (year, type of building) in the 2,390 cities of the Deutsches Städtebuch. Partial release of the dataset. Dates are currently coarsened to 25-year intervals.
  • 6: Conflict Incidents and Wars
    • Dataverse page: [link]; Documentation: [pdf]
    • Contains: Military conflict incidents (year, type, war) in the 2,390 cities of the Deutsches Städtebuch

Full replication packages

  • Cantoni, Yang, Yuchtman, Zhang: "Protests as Strategic Games" (QJE, 2019)
    • Package: [.zip]
    • Contains: Survey and experiment with HKUST students
  • Cantoni, Dittmar, Yuchtman: "Religious Competition and Reallocation" (QJE, 2018)
    • Package: [.zip]
    • Contains: Town-level data on construction activity and monasteries, 1400–1900; Students, degrees and career paths until 1600.
  • Cantoni, Chen, Yang, Yuchtman, Zhang: "Curriculum and Ideology" (JPE, 2017)
    • Package: [.zip]
    • Contains: Survey of students on Peking University campus. Code.
  • Bursztyn, Cantoni: "Iron Curtain" (REStat, 2016)
    • Package: [.zip]; Dataverse page: [link]
    • Contains: Stata code and log files from the German Income and Expenditure Survey. Partial replication package: replication possible only after applying for use of confidential data. Data package also contains separate crosswalk files of East German municipalities (in the borders of 1992 and 1997) and values of TV signal intensity and distance to the West.
  • Cantoni: "Testing the Weber Hypothesis" (JEEA, 2015)
    • Package: [.zip]
    • Contains: Data on city-level outcomes for the Holy Roman Empire, 1300–1900; Urbanization for German regions, 1700–1900; Prussian manufacturing census of 1816–1821. Code (Stata).
  • Cantoni, Yuchtman: "Medieval Markets" (QJE, 2014)
    • Package: [.zip]
    • Contains: Data on market and city foundations for the Holy Roman Empire until 1500; ancillary datasets: markets in Italy, England and Wales, urbanization rates, manuscripts, university, university students. Code (Stata).
  • Cantoni: "Adopting a New Religion" (EJ, 2012)
    • Package: [.zip]; Dataverse page: [link]
    • Contains: Territory-level data on adoption of Protestantism and covariates; city-level data on adoption of Protestantism and covariates; territory-level panel data on adoption of Protestantism and neighbors' adoption. Code (Stata).
  • Acemoglu, Cantoni, Johnson, Robinson: "French Revolution" (AER, 2011)
    • Package: [.zip]
    • Contains: Regional data on urbanization rates (1700–1900) and sectoral employment shares (1849–1907) for regions/states of Germany. Code (Stata).