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Individual’s religiosity enhances trust: Latin American evidence for the puzzle

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Author Info
Pablo Brañas-Garza () (Universidad de Granada)
Máximo Rossi () (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
Dayna Zaclicever () (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)

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Abstract

This paper explores the effect of religious observance and affiliation to the dominant religion (Catholicism) on trust in institutions, towards others and market attitudes. The analysis is performed using a Latin American database of twenty thousand respondents from 2004 by means of ordered probit models. The most interesting results are: i) Trust toward others is positively correlated with religious observance and with Catholic affiliation. ii) There is a positive correlation between trust in the government, in the police, in the armed forces, in the judiciary and in the banking system and religious practice in general. Identical positive results are obtained for Catholic affiliation. iii) Correlations with attitudes toward the market, in general, are heterogeneous but never negative. In sum, individual’s level of religiosity crucially affects trust in institutions and toward peers. We also found that Catholicism encourages both trust in institutions and towards others. Thus, we found a positive effect of “religiosity” on social capital. In fact, we never found any negative (and significant) effect on the variables considered.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics - dECON in its series Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) with number 0506.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: May 2006
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Handle: RePEc:ude:wpaper:0506

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Related research
Keywords: trust in institutions; economic behavior; religious practise; Catholics.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2002. "People's Opium? Religion and Economic Attitudes," CEPR Discussion Papers 3588, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Bruce Sacerdote & Edward L. Glaeser, 2001. "Education and Religion," NBER Working Papers 8080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Shoshana Neuman, 2006. "Intergenerational Transmission of ‘Religious Capital’: Evidence from Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 2183, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  4. Cox, James C., 2004. "How to identify trust and reciprocity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 260-281, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. La Porta, Rafael, et al, 1997. "Trust in Large Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 333-38, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Neuman, Shoshana, 1986. "Religious Observance within a Human Capital Framework: Theory and Application," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 18(11), pages 1193-1202, November.
  7. Robert J. Barro & Rachel M. McCleary, 2002. "Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel," NBER Working Papers 8931, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Productivity Commission, 2003. "Social capital: reviewing the concept and its policy implications," Public Economics 0307001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  9. Garza, Pablo Brañas & Neuman, Shoshana, 2003. "Analyzing Religiosity Within an Economic Framework: The Case of Spanish Catholics," IZA Discussion Papers 868, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  10. Azzi, Corry & Ehrenberg, Ronald G, 1975. "Household Allocation of Time and Church Attendance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(1), pages 27-56, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Laurence R. Iannaccone, 1998. "Introduction to the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1465-1495, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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