蝌蚪网 Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Beyond Work Ethic: Religion, Individual, and Political Preferences
蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 5,
no. 3, August 2013
(pp. 67–91)
Abstract
We investigate the effect of Reformed Protestantism, relative to Catholicism, on preferences for leisure, and for redistribution and intervention in the economy. We use a Fuzzy Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design to exploit a historical quasi-experiment in Western Switzerland, where in the sixteenth century a hitherto homogeneous region was split and one part assigned to adopt Protestantism. We find that Reformed Protestantism reduces referenda voting for more leisure by 14, redistribution by 5, and government intervention by 7 percentage points. These preferences translate into higher per capita income as well as greater income inequality.Citation
Basten, Christoph, and Frank Betz. 2013. "Beyond Work Ethic: Religion, Individual, and Political Preferences." 蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy 5 (3): 67–91. DOI: 10.1257/pol.5.3.67Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- H23 Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
- N33 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: Pre-1913
- Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion