Ear-Witnessing Sin: The Law and Economics of Puritan Organization

Abstract

Puritan congregations in 17th century New England instituted many prohibitions and regulations surrounding daily life. We argue the least cost mechanism for enforcing these laws was settlement proximity. By clustering their homes close to one another, Puritans were able to lower monitoring costs and effectively enforce their rules. Using an originally constructed data set of 327 New England towns, we find more religious towns were more compactly settled and vice versa. This theory explains why centralized land demarcating institutions were often found in New England but not in other American colonies.