Beyond Work Ethic

Christoph Basten and Frank Betz

No 12-309, KOF Working papers from KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich

Abstract: We investigate the effect of Reformed Protestantism, relative to Catholicism, on preferences for leisure, and for redistribution and intervention in the economy. We use a Fuzzy Spatial Regression Dis- continuity Design to exploit a historical quasi-experiment inWestern Switzerland, where in the 16th century a hitherto homogeneous re- gion was split and one part assigned to adopt Protestantism. We nd that Reformed Protestantism reduces referenda voting for more leisure by 12, for redistribution by 7, and for government interven- tion by 6 percentage points. These preferences translate into higher per capita income as well as greater income inequality.

Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2012-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kof:wpskof:12-309

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