Economic Freedom and Religion: An Empirical Investigation

Arye Hillman () and Niklas Potrafke

No 6017, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: There has been much study of the consequences of economic freedom but, outside of the role of political institutions, there has been little study of the determinants of economic freedom. We investigate whether religion affects economic freedom. Our cross-sectional dataset includes 137 countries averaged over the period 2001-2010. Simple correlations show that Protestantism is associated with economic freedom, Islam is not, with Catholicism in between. The Protestant ethic requires economic freedom. Our empirical estimates, which include religiosity, political institutions, and other explanatory variables, confirm that Protestantism is most conducive to economic freedom.

Keywords: economic freedom; protestant ethic; religion; religiosity; Catholicism; Islam; democracy; autocracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I39 J16 O11 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Freedom and Religion: An Empirical Investigation (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6017

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