Essays on Religion, Conflict, and Economic Development

This dissertation will examine, theoretically and empirically, the relationship between religion and state and how the historical evolution of this relationship has affected current economic outcomes. Developing an argument centered on legitimizing relationship between political rulers and religion, and using a new dataset that has information on the religious and political histories of today\u27s nations since the year 1000, it first demonstrates how state religion has evolved over time and across space since the year 1000, then analyzes how historical religious differences between rulers and segments of populations affect current civil conflict, and finally extend the analysis to the historical religious roots of current state capacity and economic development across countries