Publications
Journal Articles
Sascha O. Becker, Jared Rubin, and Ludger Woessmann. 2024. "Religion and Growth." Journal of Economic Literature 62(3): forthcoming. [Gated]
Greif, Avner, and Jared Rubin. 2024. “Endogenous Political Legitimacy: The Tudor Roots of England’s Constitutional Governance.” Journal of Economic History 84(3): forthcoming.
Bisin, Alberto, Jared Rubin, Avner Seror, and Thierry Verdier. 2024. "Culture, Institutions, and the Long Divergence." Journal of Economic Growth 29(1): 1-40. [Gated]
Jean-Paul Carvalho, Jared Rubin, and Michael Sacks. 2023. "Failed Secular Revolutions: Religious Co-optation and Extremism." Public Choice.
Karaja, Elira and Jared Rubin. 2022. "The Cultural Transmission of Trust Norms: Evidence from a Lab in the Field on a Natural Experiment." Journal of Comparative Economics 50(1): 1-19. [SSRN] [Gated]
Boerner, Lars, Jared Rubin, and Battista Severgnini. 2021. "A Time to Print, a Time to Reform." European Economic Review 138(103826). [Gated]
Iyigun, Murat, Jared Rubin, and Avner Seror. 2021. "A Theory of Cultural Revivals." European Economic Review 135(103734). [Gated]
Becker, Sascha O., Yuan Hsiao, Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2020. “Multiplex Network Ties and the Spatial Diffusion of Radical Innovations: Martin Luther's Leadership in the Early Reformation.” American Sociological Review 85(5): 857-894.
Chaudhary, Latika, Jared Rubin, Sriya Iyer, and Anand Shrivastava. 2020. "Culture and Colonial Legacy: Evidence from Public Goods Games." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 173: 107-129. [Gated]
Ma, Debin, and Jared Rubin. 2019. "The Paradox of Power: Principal-Agent Problems and Administrative Capacity in Imperial China (and other Absolutist Regimes)." Journal of Comparative Economics 47: 277-294. [Gated]
Hajikhameneh, Aidin, and Jared Rubin. 2019. "Exchange in the Absence of Legal Enforcement: Reputation and Multilateral Punishment under Uncertainty." Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 35(1): 192-237. [Gated]
Kuran, Timur, and Jared Rubin. 2018. "The Financial Power of the Powerless: Socio-Economic Status and Interest Rates under Weak Rule of Law." Economic Journal 128(609): 758-796. [Gated]
Press: voxEU; The Independent; Science Daily; Duke Today; badcredit.org; podcast on "Research on Religion"
Rubin, Jared, Anya Samek, and Roman Sheremeta. 2018. "Loss Aversion and the Quantity-Quality Trade-off." Experimental Economics 21(2): 292-315. [Gated]
Becker, Sascha O., Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2016. "Causes and Consequences of the Protestant Reformation." Explorations in Economic History 62: 1-25. [Gated]
Chaudhary, Latika, and Jared Rubin. 2016. "Religious Identity and the Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from the Indian Princely States." Journal of Comparative Economics 44(3): 461-483.
Rubin, Jared, and Roman Sheremeta. 2016. "Principal-Agent Settings with Random Shocks." Management Science 62(4): 985-999.
Kimbrough, Erik O., and Jared Rubin. 2015. "Sustaining Group Reputation." Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 31(3): 599-628.
Kimbrough, Erik O., Jared Rubin, Roman Sheremeta, and Timothy Shields. 2015. "Commitment Problems in Conflict Resolution." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 112: 33-45.
Rubin, Jared. 2014. "Printing and Protestants: An Empirical Test of the Role of Printing in the Reformation." Review of Economics and Statistics 96(2): 270-286.
Data (Stata .dta file); README file; Stata do-file; Appendices
Rubin, Jared. 2014. "Centralized Institutions and Cascades." Journal of Comparative Economics 42(2): 340-357.
Aimone, Jason A., Laurence R. Iannaccone, Michael D. Makowsky, and Jared Rubin. 2013. "Endogenous Group Formation via Unproductive Costs." Review of Economic Studies 80(4): 1215-1236.
Press: OUPblog
Makowsky, Michael D., and Jared Rubin. 2013. "An Agent-Based Model of Centralized Institutions, Social Network Technology, and Revolution." PLoS ONE 8(11): e80380.
Coşgel, Metin M., Thomas J. Miceli, and Jared Rubin. 2012. "The Political Economy of Mass Printing: Legitimacy, Revolt, and Technology Change in the Ottoman Empire." Journal of Comparative Economics 40(3): 357-371.
Coşgel, Metin M., Thomas J. Miceli, and Jared Rubin. 2012. "Political Legitimacy and Technology Adoption." Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 168(3): 339-361.
Rubin, Jared. 2011. "Institutions, the Rise of Commerce, and the Persistence of Laws: Interest Restrictions in Islam & Christianity." Economic Journal 121(557): 1310-1339.
Press: VoxEU; Foreign Policy; podcast on "Research on Religion"
Iannaccone, Laurence R., Colleen E. Haight, and Jared Rubin. 2011. "Lessons from Delphi: Religious Markets and Spiritual Capitals." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 77(3): 326-338.
Chaudhary, Latika, and Jared Rubin. 2011. "Reading, Writing, and Religion: Institutions and Human Capital Formation." Journal of Comparative Economics 39(1): 17-33. Appendix: Model
Rubin, Jared. 2010. "Bills of Exchange, Interest Bans, and Impersonal Exchange in Islam and Christianity." Explorations in Economic History 47(2): 213-227.
Rubin, Jared. 2009. "Social Insurance, Commitment, and the Origin of Law: Interest Bans in Early Christianity." Journal of Law & Economics 52(4): 761-777. Appendix of Proofs
David, Paul A., and Jared Rubin. 2008. "Restricting Access to Books on the Internet: Some Unanticipated Effects of U.S. Copyright Legislation." Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues 5(1): 23-53.
Book Chapters
Rubin, Jared. 2025. “Religion, Culture, and Politics,” in North-Holland Handbook of Political Economy (edited by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson). New York: North-Holland: in preparation.
Becker, Sascha O., Amma Panin, Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2025. “Religion and Economic Development: Past, Present, Future,” in Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior (edited by Benjamin Enke, Paola Giuliano, Nathan Nunn, and Leonard Wantchekon). In preparation.
Rubin, Jared. 2024. “Religion and Institutions,” in Handbook of New Institutional Economics, 2nd edition (edited by Mary Shirley and Claude Menard). New York: Springer: forthcoming.
Rubin, Jared. 2024. “How Did the World Become Rich?,” in The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations (edited by Laura Grube). Beloit, WI: Beloit University Press.
Rubin, Jared. 2024. “Religion, Political Legitimacy, and Complexity,” in Handbook on Institutions and Complexity (edited by Eric Alston, Lee Alston, and Bernardo Mueller). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming.
Rubin, Jared. 2024. “Religion and Cliometric Analysis,” in Handbook of Cliometrics, 3rd edition (edited by Claude Diebolt and Michael Haupert). New York: Springer Nature, pp. 1055-1074.
Greif, Avner, and Jared Rubin. 2023. “Political Legitimacy in Historical Political Economy,” in The Oxford Handbook of Historical Political Economy (edited by Jeffery A. Jenkins and Jared Rubin). New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 293-310.
Jenkins, Jeffery A., and Jared Rubin. 2023. “Historical Political Economy: What Is It?” in The Oxford Handbook of Historical Political Economy (edited by Jeffery A. Jenkins and Jared Rubin). New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-14.
Rubin, Jared. 2022. “Religious Legitimacy and Long Run Economic Growth in the Middle East.” in: Oxford University Press Handbook on Politics of Muslim Societies (edited by Melani Cammett and Pauline Jones). Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 619-636.
Becker, Sascha O., Jared Rubin, and Ludger Woessmann. 2021. “Religion in Economic History: A Survey.” in The Handbook of Historical Economics (edited by Alberto Bisin and Giovanni Federico). London: Elsevier, pp. 585-639.
Rubin, Jared. 2021. “Religion and Politics: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not.” in: Routledge Handbook on Middle East Economy (edited by Hassan Hakimian). New York: Routledge, pp. 265-274.
Carvalho, Jean-Paul, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin. 2019. "Introduction." in: Advances in the Economics of Religion (edited by Jean-Paul Carvalho, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-21.
Rubin, Jared. 2019. "The Political and Economic Consequences of Religious Legitimacy." in: Advances in the Economics of Religion (edited by Jean-Paul Carvalho, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 311-320.
Rubin, Jared. 2018. "Global Divergence and Economic Change." in: An Economist’s Guide to Economic History (edited by Matthias Blum and Chris Colvin). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 193-200.
Rubin, Jared. 2018. "Islamic Law and Economic Development." in: Research Handbook on the History of Corporate Law (edited by Harwell Wells). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 17-32.
Becker, Sascha O., and Jared Rubin. 2017. "The Protestant Reformation's Impact in Europe." in: The Long Economic Shadow of History, volume 3 (edited by Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou). VOX E-book, pp. 63-70.
Rubin, Jared. 2015. "Bills of Exchange, Financial Networks, and Quasi-Impersonal Exchange in Western Europe and the Middle East." in: Union in Separation: Diasporic Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100-1800) (edited by G. Christ, F.J. Morche, R. Zaugg, W. Kaiser, S. Burkhardt, A.D. Beihammer). Rome: Viella, pp. 545-553.
Rubin, Jared. 2014. "Islamic Institutions and Underdevelopment." in: Handbook on Islam and Economic Life (edited by M. Kabir Hassan and Mervyn K. Lewis). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 593-609.
Rubin, Jared. 2013. "Timur Kuran’s Framework and Economic Underdevelopment in the Islamic World." in: The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations (edited by Joshua Hall). Beloit, WI: Beloit University Press, pp. 85-94.
Rubin, Jared. 2012. "Trade and Commerce." in: Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (edited by Gerhard Bowering, Patricia Crone, Wadad Kadi, Devin J. Stuart, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 552-554.
Book Reviews
Economic History Review: Wenkai He's Public Interest and State Legitimation: Early Modern England, Japan, and China 77(3): 1116-1117
Journal of Economic Literature: Benjamin M. Friedman's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism 60(2): 650-652.
International Journal of Middle East Studies: Jonathan Lawrence's Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State 54(1): 191-193.
EH.Net Review: Ahmet Kuru's Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison, May 2020.
EH.Net Review: Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama's Persecution & Toleration: The Long Road to Religious Freedom, October 2019.
Journal of Economic History: Francesca Trivellato's The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society, 79(3): 897-899.
Journal of Economic Literature: Jean-Philippe Platteau's Islam Instrumentalized: Religion and Politics in Historical Perspective, 56(4): 1601-1603.
EH.Net Review: Bas van Bavel's The Invisible Hand? How Market Economies Have Emerged and Declined since AD 500, May 2018.
EH.Net Review: Metin Coşgel and Boğaç Ergene's The Economics of Ottoman Justice: Settlement and Trial in the Sharia Courts, June 2017.
Journal of Economic History: Murat Iyigun's War, Peace and Prosperity in the Name of God: The Ottoman Role in Europe's Socioeconomic Evolution, 76(3): pp. 953-954, 2016.
EH.Net Review: Murat Iyigun's War, Peace and Prosperity in the Name of God: The Ottoman Role in Europe's Socioeconomic Evolution, August 2015.
EH.Net Review: Deirdre McCloskey’s Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World, February 2011.
EH.Net Review: M. Umer Chapra’s Muslim Civilization: The Causes of Decline and the Need for Reform, June 2008.