The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Religion and Economic Growth across Countries
Open accessAbstract
Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth typically neglects the influence of religion. To fill this gap, this study uses international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth. To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, the estimation relies on instrumental variables suggested by an analysis in which church attendance and religious beliefs are the dependent variables. The instruments are variables for the presence of state religion and for regulation of the religion market, the composition of religious adherence, and an indicator of religious pluralism. Results show that economic growth responds positively to religious beliefs, notably beliefs in hell and heaven, but negatively to church attendance. That is, growth depends on the extent of believing relative to belonging. These results accord with a model in which religious beliefs influence individual traits that enhance economic performance. The beliefs are an output of the religion sector, and church attendance is an input to this sector. Hence, for given beliefs, higher church attendance signifies more resources used up by the religion sector.
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Cites
Putnam, R. (2000) · doi:10.1145/358916.361990 · Cited by 17,114
The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set of International Comparisons, 1950-1988
Summers, R., & Heston, A. (1991) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.2307/2937941 · Cited by 3,429
Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries
Barro, R. J. (2000) · Journal of Economic Growth · doi:10.1023/a:1009850119329 · Cited by 2,676 · cited 3×
“We have benefited from comments by Gary Becker, Francesco Caselli, Mark Chaves, Ed Glaeser, Charles Harper, Jason Hwang, Laurence Iannaccone, Greg Mankiw, James Montgomery, Thomas Osang, Robert Woodberry, and participants in several seminars and classes.”
Self-citationHousehold Allocation of Time and Church Attendance
Azzi, C., & Ehrenberg, R. (1975) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/260305 · Cited by 711
Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel
McCLEARY, R. M., & BARRO, R. J. (2006) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2006.00299.x · Cited by 416
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Cited by
Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility
Fernández, R., & Fogli, A. (2009) · American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics · doi:10.1257/mac.1.1.146 · Cited by 1,264
Dynamics of Dyads in Social Networks: Assortative, Relational, and Proximity Mechanisms
Rivera, M. T., Soderstrom, S. B., & Uzzi, B. (2010) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134743 · Cited by 939
The cultural evolution of prosocial religions
Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A. F., Gervais, W. M., Willard, A. K., McNamara, R. A., Slingerland, E., & Henrich, J. (2016) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x14001356 · Cited by 934
McCleary, R. M., & Barro, R. J. (2006) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.20.2.49 · Cited by 894
Self-citationReligion and Political Economy in an International Panel
McCLEARY, R. M., & BARRO, R. J. (2006) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2006.00299.x · Cited by 416
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Metadata
- Authors
- Barro, R. J., & McCleary, R. M.
- Venue
- American Sociological Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-10
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 760-781
- ISSN
- 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-8271
- OpenAlex
- W1621619283
- Cited by
- 1,445
- References
- 5
- FWCI
- 51.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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