Historical roots of municipalities development: the Portuguese case

The development literature has pointed out some deeply rooted determinants of current economic development. We checked the historical Portuguese municipalities’ and also if strength different dominant medieval classes (nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie) in each municipality importance for social development, using proxies. results indicate that cathedral antiquity is statistically significant explaining purchasing power municipal index. It interesting to observe proxy bourgeois does not have influence most robust regressions, nobility (the castle antiquity) negatively related power.