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The Economic Effects of Christian Moralities

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Author Info
Benito Arruñada ()

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Abstract

This article examines the different influences that Catholicism and Protestantism exert on economically relevant values. It argues that Catholic theology and practice facilitate personal transactions while Protestantism favors values and types of moral and legal enforcement better adapted for impersonal trade. Protestantism may thus be more conducive to economic growth through anonymous exchange while Catholicism may provide better support for personal contracting. Several components of this hypothesis are confirmed using statistical models with data from the 1998 ISSP international survey on religion. These show that Protestants are more trusting of anonymous counter parties, develop more reliable institutions for legal enforcement and are more willing to spend resources on monitoring and punishing other members of the community. Catholicism is more protective of the family and small-group relationships, and provides more tolerant and less motivating beliefs. Relatively smaller and less consistent differences appear in terms of worldly personal success and incentives.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in its series Economics Working Papers with number 743.

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Date of creation: Mar 2004
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Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:743

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Related research
Keywords: Religion; values; Weber; institutions; enforcement;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General
N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, and Regulation
O39 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Other
Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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    Other versions:
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