Religiosity and Long-Run Productivity Growth

Dierk Herzer and Holger Strulik

Journal of Economics, Management and Religion (JEMAR), 2020, vol. 01, issue 01, 1-40

Abstract: In this paper, we show, using a panel of developed countries, that there is a long-run negative association between church attendance and total factor productivity (TFP) with predictive causality running from declining church attendance to increasing factor productivity. According to our preferred estimate, about 18% of the increase in TFP from 1950 to 1990 can be motivated by declining religiosity. In order to explain this phenomenon, we integrate into standard R&D-based growth theory a micro-foundation of individual cognitive style, which is either intuitive-believing or reflective-analytical. Under the assumption that R&D productivity is positively influenced by a reflective-analytical cognitive style, we find that secularisation leads to an increasing labour share in R&D and gradually increasing productivity growth. We use these insights to reflect on the trends in religiosity and R&D-based growth in the very long run, from Enlightenment to the present day.

Keywords: Factor productivity; cognitive style; R&D-based growth; religiosity; church attendance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Religiosity and long-run productivity growth (2016)
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DOI: 10.1142/S2737436X20500016

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