Does Religiosity Affect Multidimensional Poverty? Evidence from World Values Survey (2010-14)

Does religiosity affect multidimensional poverty? There is no simple answer to this question because there is no simple relationship between poverty and religiosity. Poverty is affected by religion in so many different ways, positively and negatively, through different routes and channels, that no plain general argument can be built. Yet, it is a fact that poverty, and its feel, is indeed affected by religion and religiosity of the people. In its influence and impact, the content of the religion as well as the practice of its followers greatly matter. It would be interesting to analyse how the content of different religions would differently affect poverty. However, before reaching that stage, even some more basic questions need to be answered that have not been studied and that could lead to improved understanding and open new avenues for further research. For example, we do not know whether the poor and non-poor are equally religious. We understand that poverty is multidimensional, that it is not only in income and wealth but also in other dimensions important for human life. In this case, what dimensions should matter? How do the patterns of deprivation across these various dimensions differ between the religious and non-religious multidimensional poor, and what impact does religiosity make on multidimensional poverty? The present paper attempts to provide a first cut answer to these questions. It also develops a new methodology by applying deprivation counting technique to analyse the issues at hand.