Religious Values and Economic Growth: A review and assessment of recent studies

Recent years have seen an increasing interest in and controversy about the role of religion in society. This paper reviews recent studies on the influence of religion on institutions and economic growth. The empirical results of these studies appear to be ambiguous, which could be due to the lack of a theoretical framework. No religion appears to be specifically proor anti-growth. Some studies reveal that at many times rulers try to influence the dominant interpretation of a religion. Although causality is a difficult issue, evidence is increasingly in favor of a causal effect from the economic situation to religious interpretations. * Prof.dr. Eelke de Jong, Department of Economics, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands, phone: +31 24 361 1974, fax: +31 24 361 2379, email: [email protected]