Centralized Monitoring, Resistance, and Reform Outcomes: Evidence from School Inspections in Prussia

During the Kulturkampf at the end of the nineteenth century, Prussian authorities introduced centralized inspections to improve school outcomes in particular in Catholic regions. To measure the effect of the reform, I combine unique data on school inspectors with Prussian county-level data. I apply a difference in difference approach exploiting regional differences in the introduction of the reform. I find positive effects of the reform on school performance in interdenominational regions but no effect in predominantly Catholic regions. An increase in private enrollment in the latter regions provides further evidence for Catholic resistance.