IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/empiri/v52y2025i2d10.1007_s10663-025-09642-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religiosity and risk-taking of Muslims: evidence from lab and field

Author

Listed:
  • Hamza Umer

    (Hitotsubashi University)

  • Takashi Kurosaki

    (Hitotsubashi University)

  • Kazuhiro Obayashi

    (Hitotsubashi University)

Abstract

In this study, we examine the correlation between religiosity and risk taking among the Muslim population. We elicit risk preferences of Muslim subjects in Pakistan in an incentivized laboratory experiment and a non-incentivized field-survey. We operationalize religiosity by using belief-based, ritual-based, and knowledge-based items. We find robust evidence that very religious people as measured by the frequency of prayers (a ritual-based measure) take less risk than less religious people. In contrast, we find inconclusive evidence for the influence of religiosity on risk taking when elicited through other ritual-based measures and measures based on beliefs or knowledge. Our findings suggest that religiosity and risk-taking nexus among Muslims is sensitive to the religiosity measures. Therefore, we discuss the relative effectiveness of different religiosity measures and highlight why the frequency of prayers can be a useful proxy for measuring the religiosity of Muslims.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamza Umer & Takashi Kurosaki & Kazuhiro Obayashi, 2025. "Religiosity and risk-taking of Muslims: evidence from lab and field," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 52(2), pages 273-295, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:empiri:v:52:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s10663-025-09642-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10663-025-09642-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10663-025-09642-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10663-025-09642-6?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Religiosity; Risk preferences; Muslim; Lab experiment; Pakistan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    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:kap:empiri:v:52:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s10663-025-09642-6. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.