IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v66y2007i4p795-816.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Protestantism, Labor Force Participation, and Employment Across Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Horst Feldmann

Abstract

. Using data from 80 countries, this article analyzes whether Protestant religion affects labor market outcomes. Controlling for the impact of labor market regulations, business regulations, the tax burden, the business cycle, the level of economic development, demographic and geographical conditions, wars, and the transition from planned to market economy as well as unobserved country and year effects, we find that countries in which the largest portion of the population practices Protestant religion have substantially higher labor force participation and employment rates, particularly among women. We obtain the same result for a subgroup of 19 industrial countries for which we have better data to control for the impact of labor market institutions and business cycle fluctuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Horst Feldmann, 2007. "Protestantism, Labor Force Participation, and Employment Across Countries," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 795-816, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:4:p:795-816
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00540.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00540.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00540.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2003. "People's opium? Religion and economic attitudes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 225-282, January.
    2. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2006. "Employment Patterns in OECD Countries: Reassessing the Role of Policies and Institutions," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 486, OECD Publishing.
    3. Stephen Nickell & Luca Nunziata & Wolfgang Ochel, 2005. "Unemployment in the OECD Since the 1960s. What Do We Know?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 1-27, January.
    4. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2006. "The Determinants of Unemployment across OECD Countries," Post-Print halshs-00120584, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John T. Addison & Orgul Demet Ozturk, 2012. "Minimum Wages, Labor Market Institutions, and Female Employment: A Cross-Country Analysis," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(4), pages 779-809, October.
    2. Pelin AKYOL & Çağla ÖKTEN, 2024. "The role of religion in female labor supply: evidence from two Muslim denominations," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(1), pages 116-153, March.
    3. Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2015. "Gender in Language and Gender in Employment," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 403-424, December.
    4. Addison, John T. & Ozturk, Orgul Demet, 2011. "Minimum Wages, Labor Market Institutions, and Female Employment," Economics Series 278, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    5. Jonathan L. Chia & Andree Hartanto, 2021. "Older Adult Employment Status and Well-Being: A Longitudinal Bidirectional Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Isis Gaddis & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation:," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 639-681, July.
    7. Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2014. "Women in cabinet and public health spending: evidence across countries," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 281-304, August.
    8. Manuela Stranges, 2022. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Female Labour Force Participation by Gender among Native and Immigrant Europeans: A Focus on Religion," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 774-798, December.
    9. Fischer, Justina A.V. & Pastore, Francesco, 2015. "Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: Religion and Female Employment over Time," IZA Discussion Papers 9244, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Cuneyt KOYUNCU & Eda ÖZEN, 2017. "Religious, Ethnic, Linguistic and Cultural Diversity and Female Labor Force Participation," Journal of Economics Bibliography, KSP Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 87-93, March.
    11. Casper Hansen & Peter Jensen & Christian Skovsgaard, 2015. "Modern gender roles and agricultural history: the Neolithic inheritance," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 365-404, December.
    12. Matias Busso & Dario Romero Fonseca, 2015. "Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America: Patterns and Explanations," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0187, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    13. Anja Koebrich Leon, 2013. "Religion and Economic Outcomes – Household Savings Behavior in the USA," Working Paper Series in Economics 268, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    14. Modrack, Simone, 2008. "The protestant work ethic revisited: A promising concept or an outdated idea?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2008-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    15. Petcu Monica & Roman Monica, 2023. "Youth Religiosity: A Bibliometric Coverage and Quantitative Assesemnt of Internal and External Dimensions," Journal of Social and Economic Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 1-24, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feldmann, Horst, 2012. "Banking deregulation around the world, 1970s to 2000s: The impact on unemployment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 26-42.
    2. Horst Feldmann, 2013. "Technological unemployment in industrial countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1099-1126, November.
    3. Francesco Giavazzi & Fabio Schiantarelli & Michel Serafinelli, 2009. "Culture, Policies and Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 353, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    4. Christoph S. Weber, 2020. "The unemployment effect of central bank transparency," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2947-2975, December.
    5. Sachs, Andreas, 2011. "Institutions and unemployment: Do interactions matter?," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-057, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Ronald Bachmann & Rahel Felder, 2021. "Labour market transitions, shocks and institutions in turbulent times: a cross-country analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 329-352, May.
    7. Horst Feldmann, 2009. "The quality of the legal system and labor market performance around the world," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 39-65, August.
    8. Horst Feldmann, 2010. "Venture Capital Availability and Labor Market Performance in Industrial Countries: Evidence Based on Survey Data," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 23-54, February.
    9. Bertola, Giuseppe, 2017. "European unemployment revisited: Shocks, institutions, integration," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 588-612.
    10. Sachs Andreas & Smolny Werner, 2015. "Youth Unemployment in the OECD: The Role of Institutions," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 235(4-5), pages 403-417, August.
    11. Simon Sturn, 2011. "Labour market regimes and unemployment in OECD countries," IMK Working Paper 6-2011, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    12. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2009. "Unemployment, institutions, and reform complementarities: re-assessing the aggregate evidence for OECD countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 40-59, Spring.
    13. Antonio Estache & Beni Kouevi Gath, 2019. "Corporate Income Taxes and (Un-)Employment in the OECD," Working Papers ECARES 2019-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. Simon STURN, 2013. "Are corporatist labour markets different? Labour market regimes and unemployment in OECD countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(2), pages 237-254, June.
    15. Horst Feldmann, 2011. "The Unemployment Puzzle of Corporate Taxation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(6), pages 743-769, November.
    16. Felder, Rahel & Bachmann, Ronald, 2016. "Labour Market Transitions, Shocks and Institutions during the Great Recession: A Cross-Country Analysis," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145851, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Nathalie Greenan & Ekaterina Kalugina & Mouhamadou Moustapha Niang, 2017. "Work Organisation and Workforce Vunerability to Non-Employment: Evidence from OECD’s Survey on Adult Skills (PIAAC) [Organisation du travail et vulnérabilité au non-emploi : une étude empirique à p," Working Papers hal-02162457, HAL.
    18. Feldmann, Horst, 2012. "Real interest rate and labor market performance in developing countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 200-203.
    19. Feldmann, Horst, 2015. "Banking system concentration and unemployment in developing countries," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 60-78.
    20. Andreas Sachs, 2012. "What really drives unemployment? A bayesian approach to determine the impact of institutions on the unemployment rate," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 1008-1019.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:4:p:795-816. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.