The Effect of Religiosity on the Economic Performance of the United States of America

• Main Author: Kim, May F
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2014
• Subjects: Religion; United States of America; Economy; Behavioral Economics
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/490; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1511&context=scripps_theses

The purpose of this study is to observe whether the religiosity of a region has an effect on its economic performance by running regressions on real gross domestic product, real household income, population, unemployment, and religiosity of each state un the U.S. from 2006 to 2012 to see if religion has a statistically significant impact in the economy do this. Considering the dwindling presence of religion in the world’s top economic powerhouses, it is expected to have a negative relationship between religion and the economy. The results show that there is a statistically significant correlation between religiosity and the economy, but the specific nature of the relationship remain inconclusive on the explicit nature of how religion may impact the economy.