Religiosity and long-run productivity growth

Arbeitspapier

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 is caused 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 reflectiveanalytical cognitive style, we find that secularization leads to an increasing labor share in R&D and gradually increasing productivity growth. We use these insights to reflect on trends in religiosity and R&D-based growth in the very long run, from Enlightenment to the present day.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: cege Discussion Papers ; No. 284

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative ; Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models
• Subject: religiosity ; church attendance ; factor productivity ; cognitive style ; R&D-based growth

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Herzer, Dierk ; Strulik, Holger
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Göttingen, Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research (cege)
• (where): Göttingen
• (when): 2016

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/142248
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET