Religiosity and its Impact on Individual Support for Welfare Spending Over Time

In this paper, I will argue that individual preferences toward religion have a significant relationship with an individual’s level of support for welfare spending. Specifically, this research finds that as religiosity increases support for welfare spending decreases. This assessment is reached through Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions using the World Values Survey (WVS). Furthermore it looks to address the potential for a temporal pattern that results from these preferences. The objective of this work is to not only establish the relationship between these two individual preferences but to also illustrate the implication they may have on federal policy toward welfare spending across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations. Lastly, by engaging in a case between Norway and Sweden, I hope to uncover some national level characteristics that may significantly influence individual preferences.