Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282125 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 433
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, München und Berlin
Abstract: 
We use the elements of a macroeconomic production function – physical capital, human capital, labor, and technology – together with standard growth models to frame the role of religion in economic growth. Unifying a growing literature, we argue that religion can enhance or impinge upon economic growth through all four elements because it shapes individual preferences, societal norms, and institutions. Religion affects physical capital accumulation by influencing thrift and financial development. It affects human capital through both religious and secular education. It affects population and labor by influencing work effort, fertility, and the demographic transition. And it affects total factor productivity by constraining or unleashing technological change and through rituals, legal institutions, political economy, and conflict. Synthesizing a disjoint literature in this way opens many interesting directions for future research.
Subjects: 
religion
growth
Christianity
Judaism
Islam
preferences
norms
institutions
capital
saving
financial development
human capital
education
population
labor
demography
fertility
total factor productivity
technological change
rituals
political economy
conflict
JEL: 
Z12
O40
N30
I25
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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