Does Religion Affect Economic Growth and Happiness? Evidence from Ramadan
Filipe Campante and
David Yanagizawa-Drott
No 274, CID Working Papers from Center for International Development at Harvard University
Abstract:
We study the economic effects of religious practices in the context of the observance of Ramadan fasting, one of the central tenets of Islam. To establish causality, we exploit variation in the length of the fasting period due to the rotating Islamic calendar. We report two key, quantitatively meaningful results: 1) longer Ramadan fasting has a negative effect on output growth in Muslim countries, and 2) it increases subjective well-being among Muslims. We then examine labor market outcomes, and find that these results cannot be primarily explained by a direct reduction in labor productivity due to fasting. Instead, the evidence indicates that Ramadan affects Muslims' relative preferences regarding work and religiosity, suggesting that the mechanism operates at least partly by changing beliefs and values that influence labor supply and occupational choices beyond the month of Ramadan itself. Together, our results indicate that religious practices can affect labor supply choices in ways that have negative implications for economic performance, but that nevertheless increase subjective well-being among followers.
Keywords: Religion; Economic Growth; Subjective Well-Being; Happiness; Ramadan; Islam; Culture; Labor Markets; Values (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E20 J20 O40 O43 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/ce ... 4_Campante_Drott.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
Working Paper: Does Religion Affect Economic Growth and Happiness? Evidence from Ramadan (2013) 
Working Paper: Does Religion Affect Economic Growth and Happiness? Evidence from Ramadan (2013) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cid:wpfacu:274
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in CID Working Papers from Center for International Development at Harvard University 79 John F. Kennedy Street. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chuck McKenney ().