Risk Aversion and Religion

Charles N. Noussair, Stefan T. Trautmann, Gijs van de Kuilen and Nathanael Vellekoop

No 2012-19, Experimental Economics Center Working Paper Series from Experimental Economics Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Abstract: Using a dataset for a demographically representative sample of the Dutch population, containing a revealed preference risk attitude measure, as well as very detailed information about participants' religious background, we study three issues raised in previous literature. First, we find strong confirmatory evidence that more religious people, as measured by church membership or attendance, are more risk averse. Second, we obtain some evidence that Protestants are more risk averse than Catholics. Third, our data suggest that the link between risk aversion and religion is driven by social aspects of church membership, rather than by religious beliefs themselves.

Keywords: Risk aversion; Religion; Catholicism; Protestantism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C93 D81 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2012-12
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:exc:wpaper:2012-19

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