Discussion paper
DP18718 Winners and Losers from the Protestant Reformation: An Analysis of the Network of European Universities
Using a new database of European academics, we describe how the network of universities was altered following the Protestant Reformation. We focus on fragmentation and on universities' centrality. Dyadic regressions confirm that geography and vernacular languages were important, but did not substitute for religion. We compare simulated networks with and without religious identity. Most universities loose centrality in the religious network compared to the atheist one. As publications per university are correlated with centrality, our simulations lend credence to the view that the loss of connectedness of universities after the Reformation was important in triggering their scientific decline.
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