Business History Conference

We study the effect of Protestantism on human capital acquisition using novel data on 234 counties and 2,478 towns in the Korean peninsula in 1930. First, we show that towns with a larger number of native Protestant churches have higher literacy rates throughout colonial Korea. To establish causality, we employ hand-collected data on the exposure to foreign Protestant missionaries as an instrumental variable for the number of native Protestant churches. Furthermore, we study the differential success of different missionary societies, using a spatial RDD that exploits the Comity Agreement of 1909 which geographically divided Korea between missionary societies. We show that Presbyterians, who put more emphasis on empowering local churches, were more successful at attracting members, and fostering literacy, than the Methodists with their more hierarchical structure.

This address urges a more self-aware business history. It uses autobiographical details and select biographies of literary figures and women professionals to shed light on the subtle and not-so subtle inequalities associated with business and capitalism. The deliberate tease in the title—WOMEN CHANGE EVERYTHING—is intended to convey the power of word placement to change interpretive meaning and significance, and the power of history to modify understanding. Modifiers are key to an appreciation of the constraints and opportunities that have framed the lives and experiences of women in economies and societies. Even footnotes function in this address as modifiers, uncannily revealing sources of authorial intent and inspiration and throwing light on literary and historiographical hierarchies.