Working Paper: NBER ID: w9237
Authors: Luigi Guiso; Paola Sapienza; Luigi Zingales
Abstract: Since Max Weber, there has been an active debate on the impact of religion on people's economic attitudes. Much of the existing evidence, however, is based on cross-country studies in which this impact is confounded by differences in other institutional factors. We use the World Values Surveys to identify the relationship between intensity of religious beliefs and economic attitudes, controlling for country fixed effects. We study several economic attitudes toward cooperation, the government, working women, legal rules, thriftiness, and the market economy. We also distinguish across religious denominations, differentiating on whether a religion is dominant in a country. We find that on average, religious beliefs are associated with good' economic attitudes, where good' is defined as conducive to higher per capita income and growth. Yet religious people tend to be more racist and less favorable with respect to working women. These effects differ across religious denominations. Overall, we find that Christian religions are more positively associated with attitudes conducive to economic growth.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: O57; O40; P51
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| religious participation (Z12) | trust in others (Z13) |
| religious participation (Z12) | trust in government institutions (H10) |
| religious upbringing (Z12) | intolerance (J15) |
| religious beliefs (Z12) | good economic attitudes (P17) |
| active churchgoers among Christians (Z12) | higher trust levels (Z13) |
| religious beliefs (Z12) | attitudes conducive to higher per capita income (P17) |
| religious beliefs (Z12) | attitudes conducive to economic growth (O49) |
| religious participation (Z12) | less willingness to break the law (K49) |
| Christianity (Z12) | positive economic attitudes (D78) |
| Islam (P40) | negative economic attitudes (D91) |
| Hinduism (Z12) | negative economic attitudes (D91) |
| active participation in religion (Z12) | trust in government institutions (H10) |